All around the world, lawyers generate more hostility than the members of any other profession — with the possible exception of journalism.
整个世界范围内，律师比起其他任何职业的人员引起更多的敌意--可能除了新闻业人员。
But there are few places where clients have more grounds for complaint than America.
但是很少有地方可以像美国这样有更多的理由抱怨律师这个行业。
During the decade before the economic crisis, spending on legal services in America grew twice as fast as inflation.
在经济危机以前的十年间，美国在法律服务业的支出增长了两倍，如同和通货膨胀一样快。
The best lawyers made skyscrapers-full of money, tempting ever more students to pile into law schools.
最好的律师赚了很多钱，诱使更多的学生挤进法学院。
But most law graduates never get a big-firm job.
但是大多数的法律毕业生从来没有获得过大的律师事务所的工作。
Many of them instead become the kind of nuisance-lawsuit filer that makes the tort system a costly nightmare.
他们当中的许多人反而成为了那种妨碍民事诉讼的文件编档员，他们使得在侵权索赔制度上的花费如噩梦。
There are many reasons for this. One is the excessive costs of a legal education.
法律服务业的支出增长还有许多原因。其中一个就是法律教育的过度支出。
There is just one path for a lawyer in most American states:
在美国大多数州成为律师仅仅一条途径：
a four-year undergraduate degree in some unrelated subject,
用四年时间获得一些与法律不相关学科的学士学位，
then a three-year law degree at one of 200 law schools authorized by the American Bar Association and an expensive preparation for the bar exam.
然后在美国律师协会授权的200所法学院之一攻读三年以获得法律学位，而且为律师资格考试准备高昂的费用。
This leaves today's average law-school graduate with $100, 000 of debt on top of undergraduate debts.
这让如今的法学院毕业生承担平均10万美元的债务，居本科生债务之首。
Law-school debt means that they have to work fearsomely hard.
法学院学生的债务意味着他们不得不极大地努力工作。
Reforming the system would help both lawyers and their customers.
体制改革对律师和客户都有利。
Sensible ideas have been around for a long time, but the state-level bodies that govern the profession have been too conservative to implement them.
明智的想法已经存在了很长时间，但是管理此专业的州级机构一直以来太过保守而没能实施这些想法。
One idea is to allow people to study law as an undergraduate degree.
其中一个想法就是允许人们在本科时学习法律获得法律学位。
Another is to let students sit for the bar after only two years of law school.
另外一个就是让学生在法学院学习两年之后就参加律师资格考试。
If the bar exam is truly a stern enough test for a would-be lawyer, those who can sit it earlier should be allowed to do so.
如果律师资格考试真的是对一个准律师足够严格的测试，应该允许那些有能力的考生提前参考。
Students who do not need the extra training could cut their debt mountain by a third.
那些不需要额外的训练的学生就可以削减他们三分之一的债务。
The other reason why costs are so high is the restrictive guild-like ownership structure of the business.
高昂支出的另一个原因是限制性的、类似于行会的，企业的所有权结构。
Except in the District of Columbia, non-lawyers may not own any share of a law firm.
除了哥伦比亚特区，非律师可能不能拥有法律事务所的任何股份。
This keeps fees high and innovation slow.
这个使得费用高而且革新慢。
There is pressure for change from within the profession,
在行业的内部做改变有压力，
but opponents of change among the regulators insist that
但是管理此行业中的反对者坚持认为
keeping outsiders out of a law firm isolates lawyers from the pressure to make money rather than serve clients ethically.
让局外人不持股份的做法使得律师远离赚钱的压力，而不是让其在道德上去服务客户。
In fact, allowing non-lawyers to own shares in law firms would reduce costs and improve services to customers,
事实上，允许非律师持有法律事务所的股份会减少开支，并且提高对客户的服务质量，
by encouraging law firms to use technology and to employ professional managers to focus on improving firms' efficiency.
为了提高事务所的效率，他们鼓励法律事务所使用技术手段，并且聘请专业的经理。
After all, other countries, such as Australia and Britain, have started liberalizing their legal professions. America should follow.
毕竟其它一些国家，如澳大利亚和英国已经开始使他们的法律职业自由化。美国应该采取这样的做法。