In the middle of 20 century, the number of lawyers of American was 180000 to 200000; every 750 persons had one lawyer. This period was the golden period of the development of lawyering. In the 1980th, the amount of lawyers in American exploded into 500000; every 400 persons have one lawyer. After 1990, American law firms became larger and larger; some law firms had $100,00,00,00 incomes in a year (This figure is equal to all the Chinese law firms’ incomes in a year!) Now, there are 100,00,00 lawyers in American; every 300 persons have one lawyer. 80 percent of the lawyers in the world are concentrated in the United States.
　The American law firms have an uninterrupted development history of hundreds of years, while Chinese law firms only have twenty years’ history after the People’s Republic of China set up in 1949. The General Rule of Peoples’ Court of July 1950 provided that the defendant had the right of advocacy, it was the legal base of the existence of lawyers and law firms. Four years later, the central government tried out to set up law firms in several large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin. The first Constitution of 1954 provided that defendant had the right to defend by himself or hire a lawyer to defend. In 1956, the Regulation of Lawyers’ Fee was effective. But the process of constructing law firms had been stopped in 1957 due to political reasons. During the following twenty years, China had no law firm. It was not until 1979 did the Communist Party decide to resume the law firms. From then on, China began to construct government law firms. There were ten national law firms in Beijing before 1995.The largest law firm was The First Law Firm of Beijing, which had nearly one hundred lawyers at her height of power and splendor. In the 1995, the Judicial Bureau of Beijing began to reform the government law firm in Beijing. All the lawyers were encouraged to practice in self-dependent law firms. For those who were up to the mustard of setting up partnership law firms, the municipal provided conveniences for them to register. Beijing was the first city that began the reform of law firms. Many of the large cities followed the lead of it. According the latest statistic, there are 11,00,00 lawyers and 100,00 law firms in China.

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