今天是第一次有CLECSS 朋友用英文投稿。Jerry 有多年的法律经验，看了他的文章，可以总结为律师工作做事时要（一）有相当的自决能力，（二）工作有相当挑战，（三）努力和收获需要成正比。大家不妨一边细读，一边思考一下自己现在的工作是否满足这三点，是否有足够的满足感。

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作者：Jerry Liu，美国密苏里大学Kansas City分校法学博士，南京大学法学硕士，多年并购，公司法法律服务经验。Of Counsel and Executive Director, EY Law

Recently, I have been reading an interesting book—“Outlier” by Malcolm Gladwell, one of the international bestsellers on the bookshelves of readers like me. By definition, since it is a bestseller, it was written to interest the vast scope of readers, and does not target the legal profession. But I do want to share with you some portions of the book that have made me rethink the legal practice of our CLECSS alumni.

Outlieris a book more or less about success of individuals. Although touching a variety of vocations, one of its chapters uses as an illustrating example Joe Flom, one of the founding partners of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, and explains why, among other possible reasons, Jewish lawyers have become dominant for corporate takeover cases. But what interested meand what I want to share with you is more about what Malcom categorizes as “meaning”work that attributes to the success of an “outlier” like Flom or successfulindividuals in other professions. There are three criteria--autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward. Some occupations meet those three criteria, some don’t. Being a physician, an entrepreneur, or a retailer in garment industry is meaningful, while a Mexican immigrant working in the California cornfield or a worker on the assembly line in the modern industry is not engaging in meaningful work. Then it follows the sentence that actually made me putting this together:

“Hardwork is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.”

When you work either in law firms or as in house lawyers, does your work provide you “autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward?” Does your boss or supervisor maintain anextremely short leash on you (autonomy)? Does your partner still collect the fees from setting up trading companies (complexity)? And do you see a clear career path for you in your current firm in 3, 4 and 5 years’ time (connection between effort and reward)? Do you complain every day for working long hours late into the evenings (prison sentence)?

Hard work is a prison if it does not have meaning.

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（短评：Simon Mui 梅品和，CLECSS创办人，美国斯坦福商学院管理硕士，美国圣路易斯华盛顿大学法律博士，纽约/英国/香港律师，多年国际律师事务所经验）

看了Jerry的文章，我觉得这三点都很重要，但是比较属于是高级律师要考虑的问题。对于初级律师来说，其实选择并不多，你是否有足够Autonomy，Complexity，Reward，很取决于你跟的合伙人，律所政策等。例如如果你在传统的英国律所，所有东西都按步就班，你做Trainee 时就做Trainee 的事情，初级Solicitor 就做初级Solicitor的事情，很难有Autonomy 和 Complexity。

如果你在美国律所，有时候你可以证明你的能力，越级挑战。例如如果某次Senior 放假，你去的一个写招股书的机会，又写得好，老板客户满意，以后你做事就可以相对独立（Autonomy），做的事情也可以更有意思（Complexity）。长远来说Effort 肯定转化为Reward。

虽然这世界有些东西是不能改变的，但在能改变的空间，我们努力去做。只要我们努力并证明自己的能力，总能有出头天，能从Autonomy，Complexity 和Reward 找到我们做法律人的工作满足感！祝各位CLECSS 朋友有个丰盛的法律人生！