I think that the saturation of lawyers in China is an illusion; lawyers have nothing to do is a temporary phenomenon in a specific period. Many lawyers, especially young lawyers, do not have business, there are many abnormal reasons. It is caused by the historical stage that China is still a "power-ordered society" rather than a "law-ordered society". If a rough analysis, I think there are some reasons.
First, the fundamental function of Chinese lawyers, due to the political environment has not really played, really for people (including the official) to recognize. This can be seen from a large number of excellent lawyers quit criminal defense, quit litigation. Any successful big-name Chinese lawyers are no longer seen in court, especially in criminal courts. The fundamental motive of human beings to design the lawyer system is to set up a professional advocate who understands the law for the weak defendant in front of the public power, to protect him, to help him, and to prevent the emergence of the arbitrariness and blunders of the public power. The difficulty of criminal defense, administrative litigation, lawyers intervene in major social events are criticized and restricted, is China's lawyer's basic function is dwarfed by the example. Therefore, China's lawyers "social justice defender" functional characteristics, has been weakened. Lawyers have become "economic animals", the most important part of the business can not be played.
Second, China's market economy, the legal environment has not been fully developed, the most effective means of influencing the operation of the Chinese economy is not the law. The law does not play the role of the true supreme and final judge. "Strong government, weak court" is still the basic characteristics of China's economic operation at this stage. If the court has no authority, lawyers are basically useless. Because the lawyer's function can only be reflected through the impartial, free, independent, according to the law of the judicial trial. China's current stage of many problems, such as the stock market, the property market, the exchange market, put, the tax system, are the role of administrative power. The stabilizing role of the rule of law has not yet been played. The "power man" replaced the "legal man" of the social and economic regulation function, now China's "civil servant fever" far more than the "lawyer fever Lawyer fever" is far greater than "lawyer fever". Lawyers play a role in China's macroeconomic field, but also just do a copywriter, when a secretary of the function, that is, the so-called can make a lot of money "non-litigation lawyers", "listed lawyers", "project lawyers ". Judicial major judgment affects the national economic operation of the phenomenon is basically not. This also seriously affects the function of China's lawyers.
Thirdly, the consciousness of Chinese society to act in accordance with the law has not been fully formed. Although the popularization of law has been going on for more than 20 years, the legal beliefs of Chinese society have not yet been fully established. The traditional Chinese concept of law, in which people believe in power, petitions, pleas, and clean officials, is still y rooted. The virtual omnipresence of power in Chinese society is also reinforcing this social consciousness. If the people can't solve their problems in court in 2012, the Premier's words will bring the money to their door the next day. A case that has been decided by the court four or five times can be completely reopened with a single instruction from a leader. These phenomena make the people of China go not to lawyers to explain the rules (the law), but to the power (one level after another, until they find the "clean official" who they think can satisfy their demands). In China, not to mention the fact that it is extremely difficult for people's families to hire lawyers, some big private enterprises with hundreds of millions of dollars, if they bring lawyers to the contract negotiation, it will be regarded as a "distrust" of the other party, "looking for trouble". At least 90% of the 1.3 billion Chinese people hope that they will never have to deal with lawyers in their lifetime. This is the biggest difference between our national character and that of the United States and other Western countries. Such an environment will inevitably produce lawyers "false saturation".
Fourth, China's legal services industry, the problem of abnormal consumption. The first is that the lawyers in China are all concentrated in the metropolitan area. Beijing, a city of 18,000, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other provincial centers, concentrated more than 70% of China's lawyers, and are the best lawyers. In China's vast countryside, 800 million or 900 million peasants don't know what a lawyer is and can't afford one. The reason why "legal workers" have the need to exist, and its temporary vitality, is because they fill this gap. In some remote counties, it takes four or five years for a person to qualify for the national judicial system. Therefore, the number of lawyers per capita in China, for the time being, still can not count the rural population. These farmers in the countryside of food needs, education needs, medical needs, housing needs, has been included in the national economic development plan, but "legal needs" has not been included in the line of sight. The law in the countryside is still essentially limited to the level of a show. Because the country is not prepared to this piece of money, to make a living for themselves, lawyers are legal aid, long-term free service is also too naive, the people have not yet reached this level of demand. As China's lawyer's license to practice law is the national common, lawyers to the big cities to concentrate, compete with the limited developed areas, developed people market, is the inevitable trend. This phenomenon exacerbates the lack of market demand, lawyers, "saturation" illusion.
Fifth, is the lawyer's self "marketing" problem. China's lawyers are actually positioned in the "legal", "businessman", "intermediary services", "political players ", "freelancer", "businessman", there is still no consensus. But one thing is that Chinese lawyers are already characterized as self-employed people who earn their living without a single cent of state input, but instead have to pay very heavy taxes to the state. Leaving aside all the political characteristics, legal characteristics, lawyers do have a "marketing" problem. Because he has to make money to support themselves, in China's current stage, just talk about politics, the rule of law, moral responsibility, and less than 100,000 yuan a year lawyers, it is impossible to be regarded as a successful lawyer. This is indeed a contradiction. On the one hand, we despise lawyers who are money-minded, profit-oriented and unethical, and on the other hand, we are judging our successes and failures on the basis of money. For many lawyers, especially young lawyers who have just stepped into the profession, not knowing how to develop themselves, publicize themselves and promote themselves has indeed become a big problem. I have not been in favor of using the term "lawyer marketing", may have something to do with my "lawyers social responsibility" complex, but I am fully in favor of a series of research and counseling on how lawyers to expand their business. Because this is really a learning process, it is impossible to learn without a teacher. For young lawyers, this issue is particularly important.