公司法务律师：公司的保护人与指导人.docVIP

A guardian and a guide 公司法律顾问：公司的保护人和引路人ONCE upon a time, in-house corporate lawyers were dismissed as plodders. Partners at law firms make far more money. Only someone who couldn’t hack it as a legal brain-for-hire would seek the dull security of a salaried job, people assumed. But the power of in-house lawyers has grown hugely in the past ten years. The chief legal officer (CLO) is now one of the mightiest figures in the C-suite. ?曾几何时，当律师事务所的合伙人赚的盘满钵满的时候，公司法律顾问只能勉强度日。只有那些才会满足于这一靠薪金度日的工作。不过，近10年来公司法律顾问的地位急速上升，首席法务官（CLO）目前已经是公司管理层中最牛的人之一。 The main reason is that the legal thicket has grown thicker. In America, the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley act inserted federal law deep into corporate governance. The Dodd-Frank act of 2010 made running a financial business much more complicated. The penalties for rulebreaking have grown harsher, too. Companies can be turned inside out if a junior employee bribes someone on the other side of the world. Bosses can go to jail for infractions hardly anyone understands. America’s mighty prosecutors can indict a corporation, thus destroying it before any accusation is aired in court. Add to this the endless threat of lawsuits, class-action or otherwise, and life-or-death battles over patents. The top lawyer is now part of the inner circle, and big firms are finding it worthwhile to build large and talented legal departments. ?这主要是因为国家的法律越来越复杂和严密了。在美国，2002年《萨班斯-奥克斯利法案》的颁布意味着联邦法已经开始插手公司治理，而2010年通过的《多德佛兰克法案》则使金融企业的运营更加错综复杂，并且违反这些法律的处罚更加的严厉。如果公司的一名初级雇员贿赂了什么人，公司的命运可能遭到沉着的打击。老板们可能因一般人很难理解的违法行为而锒铛入狱。美国强大的检察官对公司的指控，在提交法院之前就有可能使公司遭受重创。此外公司还面临着无休止的诉讼、集团诉讼或其他法律上的威胁，以及事关公司生死存亡的专利争夺战。目前，高级律师已经进入公司的核心管理层，一些大的公司也发现组建实力雄厚的法务部门是有必要的。 Meanwhile, the notion that all the clever lawyers are chasing fat fees at white-shoe law firms is passé. Those fees are under pressure, thanks to a glut of young lawyers, the use of technology and even offshoring. In-house jobs are now just as interesting, and demand saner hours. ? 与此同时，那种认为有才干的律师在律师事务所追逐暴利的观念已经过时。由于年轻律师供过于求，新技术甚