律師爲什麼掙得越少越快樂大綱
Of the many rewards associated with becoming a lawyer — wealth, status, stimulating work — day-to-day happiness has never been high on the list. Perhaps, a new study suggests, that is because lawyers and law students are focusing on the wrong rewards.
成爲一名律師能獲得諸多回報——財富、地位、有趣的工作……但日常的幸福感卻從不在其中。一項新研究表明，也許，這是因爲律師和法律專業的學生把應該注重的職業回報搞錯了。
Researchers who surveyed 6,200 lawyers about their jobs and health found that the factors most frequently associated with success in the legal field, such as high income or a partner-track job at a prestigious firm, had almost zero correlation with happiness and well-being. However, lawyers in public-service jobs who made the least money, like public defenders or Legal Aid attorneys, were most likely to report being happy.
研究人員在調查了6200名律師的工作和健康狀況後發現，在法律界，高收入或成爲著名事務所合夥人等因素與成功關係最爲密切，但它們與幸福和快樂之間的關聯幾乎爲零。然而，從事公共服務工作的律師們，比如公設辯護律師或法律援助(Legal Aid)律師，雖然賺錢最少，在調查中卻更傾向於報告自己生活得挺開心。
Lawyers in public-service jobs also drank less alcohol than their higher-income peers. And, despite the large gap in affluence, the two groups reported about equal overall satisfaction with their lives.
從事公共服務工作的律師們酗酒也少於他們那些高收入的同行。而且，儘管兩組人在富裕程度上差距很大，但他們所報告的總體生活滿意度卻大致相當。
Making partner, the ultimate gold ring at many firms, does not appear to pay off in greater happiness, either. Junior partners reported well-being that was identical to that of senior associates, who were paid 62 percent less, according to the study, which was published this week in the George Washington Law Review.
在許多律所，成爲合夥人是員工的終極奮鬥目標，也是員工與公司之間最牢固的紐帶，但這同樣不會給人帶來更多快樂。本週發表在《喬治華盛頓法律評論》(George Washington Law Review)上的一項研究表明，初級合夥人與高級律師報告的幸福感一般無二，儘管後者的薪酬低了62%。
“Law students are famous for busting their buns to make high grades, sometimes at the expense of health and relationships, thinking, ‘Later I’ll be happy, because the American dream will be mine,’ ” said Lawrence S. Krieger, a law professor at Florida State University and an author of the study. “Nice, except it doesn’t work.”
“學法律的學生以竭盡全力追求好成績而聞名，甚至有時不惜以犧牲健康和人際交往爲代價，滿心以爲：‘我就要實現美國夢了，以後一定會過上好日子，’ ”該研究的作者之一，佛羅里達州立大學(Florida State University)的法學教授勞倫斯·S·克里格說。“想的是挺美，可惜現實不如人意。”
The problem with the more prestigious jobs, said Mr. Krieger, is that they do not provide feelings of competence, autonomy or connection to others — three pillars of self-determination theory, the psychological model of human happiness on which the study was based. Public-service jobs ggles with mental health have long plagued the legal profession. A landmark Johns Hopkins study in 1990 found that lawyers were 3.6 times as likely as non-lawyers to suffer from depression, putting them at greater risk than people in any other occupation. In December, Yale Law School released a study that said 70 percent of students there who responded to a survey were affected by mental health issues.
克里格先生認爲，與公共服務類的工作相反，聲名顯赫的工作存在一個問題：它們無法提供“能力感”(feelings of competence)、自主性以及與他人的聯繫，而這三者正是該研究所依據的描述人類幸福感的心理模型——“自我決定理論”(self-determination theory)的三大支柱。心理健康問題長期困擾着法律界人士。1990年，約翰斯·霍普金斯大學(Johns Hopkins)的一項具有里程碑意義的研究發現，律師患抑鬱症的可能性是非律師的3.6倍，這令他們比從事其他任何職業的人都面臨着更大的風險。去年12月，耶魯大學法學院(Yale Law School)發表了一份研究報告稱，在迴應他們調查的學生中，有70%受到心理健康問題的影響。
Other research has linked the legal profession to higher rates of substance abuse. In some cases, these struggles have made the news: In a recent six-month stretch in Florida, three Broward County judges were arrested on charges of driving under the influence.
另一項研究顯示，法律業與較高的物質濫用率相關。在某些情況下，這些問題還成了新聞話題：在最近的六個月內，佛羅里達州布勞沃德縣有三名法官被控酒後駕車而被捕。
From 1999 to 2007, lawyers were 54 percent more likely to commit suicide than people in other professions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And in 2014, CNN reported that 15 Kentucky lawyers had committed suicide since 2010.
美國疾病控制和預防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)的數據顯示，1999年到2007年間，律師比其他職業從業者自殺的可能性高出54%。2014年，美國有線電視新聞網(CNN)報道，自2010年以來，肯塔基州有15名律師自殺。
Why lawyers are susceptible to such dangers is a matter of debate, although unhappiness with the work itself — long hours toiling for demanding clients — is often cited as a possible cause, particularly for people who entered law school with dreams of high-stakes, cinematic courtroom battles.
爲什麼律師這麼容易發生此類危險？這是個見仁見智的問題。常有人說，該行業需要人長時間地爲苛刻的客戶辛勤勞作，本身就讓人高興不起來，對於那些以爲律師的工作就是電影裏拍的那種刺激而充滿戲劇性的法庭論戰，於是就跑去念法學院的人來說尤其如此。
“I thought I wanted to be a litigator for reasons that showed a misunderstanding of what litigators do,” said Todd D. Peterson, a law professor at George Washington University who left his job as a partner at a Washington law firm after becoming disillusioned. “The job was unfulfilling to me because I didn’t find it meaningful.” Today, Mr. Peterson is at the forefront of a movement to help law students avoid the mistakes he made.
“我想我之所以會想成爲一名訴訟律師，是因爲當初完全誤解了訴訟律師是幹什麼的，”託德·D·彼得森(Todd D. Peterson)說，他本來是華盛頓一家律師事務所的合夥人，在對工作感到幻滅後他離開了這一行。“這項工作對我來說沒有成就感，我找不到它有什麼意義。”如今，彼得森先生在喬治·華盛頓大學(George Washington University)擔任法學教授，並身先士卒地力圖幫助法學院的學生避免重蹈他的覆轍。
Others say the job requires an unhealthy degree of cynicism. “Research shows that an optimistic outlook is good for your mental health,” said Patricia Spataro, director of the New York State Lawyer Assistance Program, a resource for attorneys with mental health concerns. “But lawyers are trained to always look for the worst-case scenario. They benefit more from being pessimistic, and that takes a toll.”
還有人說，這項工作要求從業者的憤世嫉俗達到不健康的程度。“研究顯示，樂觀的人生觀世界觀有益於心理健康，”紐約州律師援助計劃（New York State Lawyer Assistance Program，一個爲有心理健康問題的律師提供幫助的組織）的負責人帕特里夏·斯帕塔羅(Patricia Spataro)說。“律師們受到的培訓卻是讓他們按照最壞的情況打算。悲觀的預期雖更利於他們的工作，但這是要付出代價的。”
And then there is the public hostility. “People just seem to hate lawyers,” Ms. Spataro said. “There are thousands of prominent websites for lawyer jokes. That’s just horrific.” Case in point: Many of the more than 3,000 comments on the CNN article about lawyer suicides applauded the trend. The comments are no longer visible in the link to the online article.
再有就是公衆的敵視。“人們似乎就是討厭律師，”斯帕塔羅女士說。“數以千計的知名網站上都有關於律師的各種笑話，這實在太可怕了。”舉個例子：在CNN那篇關於律師自殺的文章下面有3000多條評論，其中有許多都對這一趨勢鼓掌叫好。不過這些評論現在在該文的在線鏈接上已經不見了。
For Larry Zimmerman, a now-retired lawyer from Albany, jumping from a position in the New York State attorney general’s office to a lucrative job in private practice worsened his problems with alcohol.
下面再來講講拉里·齊默爾曼(Larry Zimmerman)先生的故事：他退休之前在奧爾巴尼市擔任律師，從紐約州總檢察長辦公室的一個職位跳槽到收入豐厚的私人事務所令他的酗酒問題更加嚴重了。
“Suddenly I was dealing with some very significant money and very demanding clients and high stakes,” he said. “I enjoyed what I was doing, and I was good at it, but I was terrified almost all the time.” Before he sought help, Mr. Zimmerman said, he was drinking a pint of vodka a day and relying on junior lawyers to do most of his work.
“突然之間我就要處理一些涉案金額巨大的案子，應付極其苛刻的客戶，官司的風險也很高，”他說。“我很喜歡我的工作，也很擅長，但它確實令我時時擔驚受怕。”齊默爾曼先生說，在他決心求助之前，每天都要喝一品脫（約合473毫升）伏特加，並且需要依靠初級律師來完成他的大部分工作。
To help people like Mr. Zimmerman, most state bar associations or court systems have assistance programs that can refer lawyers to counseling or rehabilitation services. More recently, the work of people like Mr. Krieger has inspired law schools to develop programs that might head off such problems.
爲了幫助像齊默爾曼先生這樣的人，大多數州的律師協會或法院系統都設有援助項目，可將律師轉診給諮詢或康復服務機構。最近，在克里格先生等人的研究的啓發下，法學院也設置了一些項目來防止此類問題。
In 2012, Mr. Peterson instituted a voluntary program at George Washington University that aims to help law students make better decisions about what kind of law, if any, they want to practice. Students in the program meet with practicing lawyers to learn about their day-to-day lives. The program also has a mental health component, providing techniques for handling stress and remaining positive.
2012年，彼得森先生在喬治·華盛頓大學發起了一個志願項目，旨在幫助那些想要進入法律界的法學院學生在衆多法律領域中做出更明智的選擇。參與該項目的學生將會見執業律師，並瞭解他們的日常生活。該項目還包括心理健康方面的內容，向學生們提供排解壓力並保持積極心態的技巧。
“We’re helping students figure out why they’re in law school and where they want to be,” Mr. Peterson said. “So instead of just working to get the best possible grades so they can send out 500 résumés in their third year and hope that some law firm hires them, they are learning about themselves and why one part of the law might be more appealing to them than another.”
“我們幫助學生認清自己爲什麼要念法學院，以及他們將來想要去哪裏工作，”彼得森先生說。“因此，他們不會只知道努力爭取最好的成績，然後在三年級時漫無目的地發出500份簡歷，指望能有律師事務所願意聘用他們，相反，他們正學着瞭解自己，瞭解自己爲什麼會覺得法律的某些部分會比其他部分更有吸引力。”
But the pressure to be hired by a big-name firm is so strongly ingrained in law school culture, one George Washington University student said, that even those who enroll with the intention of performing public service often find themselves redirected.
但是，喬治·華盛頓大學的一名學生表示，渴望被大牌律師樓錄用的壓力在法學院的文化中是如此根深蒂固，即使那些在入學時有志於從事公共服務工作的學生也常常發現自己被潛移默化地改變了就業方向。
“It’s a very real pressure in law school,” Helen Clemens, a law student, said. “It comes from all kinds of avenues, but mostly I would say it just comes from the people surrounding you. If everyone is talking about leaders from our school who have gotten jobs at a really prestigious firm, the assumption is that we all should be trying to work at a similar place.”
“在法學院裏，這是非常現實的壓力，”法學院的學生海倫·克萊門絲(Helen Clemens)說。“它的來源多種多樣，但我想說其中大部分來源於你身邊的人。如果每個人都在談論學校裏那些在久負盛名的大律師樓裏找到工作的佼佼者，那大家就會想當然地認爲所有人都應該努力得到類似的職位。”
In 2013, the University of New Mexico Law School overhauled a mandatory freshman course to more closely resemble the George Washington University program. “A lot of people go to law school because they don’t know what to do with their lives,” said Nathalie Martin, an associate dean there. “We’re trying to direct them to a field we think they would enjoy.”
2013年，新墨西哥大學法學院(University of New Mexico Law School)對大一的一門必修課程進行了徹底的變革，使其更接近喬治·華盛頓大學的項目。“很多人進法學院是因爲他們不知道自己該做什麼，”該院的副院長納塔莉·馬丁(Nathalie Martin)說。“我們試圖將他們引導到我們認爲他們會熱衷的領域去。”
Law schools at Vanderbilt University, the University of Texas and the University of Colorado also have professional development programs that focus on student well-being.
範德堡大學(Vanderbilt University)、得克薩斯大學(University of Texas)以及科羅拉多大學(University of Colorado)的法學院也設置了注重學生幸福感的職業發展計劃。
By helping students refine their goals, teachers like Mr. Peterson hope to reverse the tide of unhappiness among lawyers. But he acknowledges that it will not be simple.
彼得森先生這樣的教師希望能幫助學生完善自己的目標，並藉此逆轉律師生活不快樂的趨勢。但他也承認，這絕非易事。
“There are certainly some folks here at the law school whose initial impression was that the program was kind of touchy-feely,” he said, “and there are students who think even an hour away from reading for their courses they’re going to be graded in is too much.”
“當然，法學院裏肯定有部分人會覺得這些項目有些矯情，”他說，“甚至有學生覺得從埋頭苦讀中抽出一小時來做這些事太過浪費時間。”
“But I think people understand that we need to do something for our students,” he added, “that we have a moral obligation to help them deal with all of these issues.”
“但我想人們終能理解我們需要爲學生做些什麼，”他補充道，“從道義上，我們有義務幫助他們應對這些問題。”
