The different history of American law firms and Chinese law firms reflect the different history of the two countries. We can find that the history of law firms in one country has close relationship with the society they exist and can duly reflect the evolvement of the society.
　II. The Law Firm Organizations
　There is no uniform act on lawyers in the United States. The lawyers and law firms are regulated under the state laws. There are three kinds of law firms in the United States: Limited Liability partnerships, Limited Liability Companies and individual practice (Boutique Law Firm). Unlimited partnership was a traditional law firm organization. It required the partners take unlimited liability, which put too much responsibilities to the partners thus limited the development of a law firm. Prior to 1960, no state allowed professionals, including lawyers, to incorporate. All most all law firms were organized as partnerships.
　There were two major concerns resistance to allowing law firm incorporation: first, the possibility that the corporation itself might interfere with the professional relationship between each client and the attorney handling his case; and second, the possibility that lawyers could avoid malpractice liability. However, lawyers and other professionals succeeded in assuaging these concerns by intense lobbying in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, every jurisdiction allows lawyers to incorporate and form "professional corporations" or "professional associations." Now, most law firms are organized as professional corporations, which are entities that possess qualities of both a partnership and a corporation. Selecting the form of incorporation, the partners can avoid unlimited liability and acquire significant tax advantages, including the opportunity to establish pension plans offering greater benefits than those available to partnerships. With tax reform in the early 1980s, the tax benefits of incorporation decreased significantly. Today, limited liability is the primary advantage of the professional corporation.

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