Lawyers Subculture In China

This research explores the subculture of lawyers in China by investigating lawyers'self-recognition, interaction among lawyers, clients, colleagues, the lawyers'union, and other staff in law offices. By so doing, the study provides further data on the meanings of'lawyer subculture'and its influencing factors in the Chinese context. In Chinese society, the occupation of lawyers has a significant status in both the political and judicial arena. This has been reinforced by the increasing caseload on both civil and criminal pleas following the continuous revision of related civil and criminal codes. It is probably fair to predict that the role of lawyers will become even more significant in the lives of ordinary Chinese in the near future. However, previous academic literature has been focused more on notions of social responsibility, professional ethics and negative aspects of the subculture of lawyers. A systematic exploration of lawyer subculture is not yet in place. This research study seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of contemporary lawyer subculture.Structured observation and follow-ups were conducted with some certified public lawyers in the same law office selected by purposive sampling. An analysis of observation data obtained suggests some influencing factors that might contribute to the nature of the subculture:apprentice discipline,empiricism,pragmatism,cynicism. Looking closely, the first two factors (apprentice discipline and empiricism) could be categorized as'adaptive reason'.'Pragmatism'could be attributed from both adaptive and avoidance factors while'cynicism'could be attributed from mainly avoidance factor. At last, the article brought forward the measure which could restrict the negative influence of lawyer subculture.