Even the biggest law firms may be anachronistically inefficient. They are run by lawyers ,not professional managers, insist on charging by the “billable hour” rather than by results and use little technology more advanced than e-mail. Nonetheless, most big law firms have continued to be highly-profitable.
Only now is a serious threat to the law firms’ cozy existence emerging.
Law firms that are sub-scale and inefficient risk ruin.
The Walmarts and Amazons of professional services are at their gates, and the legal industry’s halting pace of creative destruction is set to accelerate as a result.
詞匯突破：
1. anachronistically時代錯誤地 形容詞：anachronistic
例句：
In remembering historic events, the mistake you tend to make is anachronistic.
在記歷史事件時，你容易犯的錯誤是時代錯誤。
(這樣一個巨型單詞，推薦大家關(guān)注公共微信：liuyinanlaoshi，聽聽一男老師怎么讓你快速記住這些單詞的。一男會每天和我一起配合講解這這些詞，他也堅(jiān)持十多天了，逗比認(rèn)真起來也蠻感人了，不過他一直是很認(rèn)真的逗比。)
2. billable hour 按小時收費(fèi) (這是律所的一種收費(fèi)方式)
3. cozy 舒服的
4. risk 這個詞作動詞的時候，大家可能沒有關(guān)注過用法：
看兩個例句吧：
(1)She was risking her own and her children’s health.
(1)使…冒風(fēng)險;
(2) They risked death.
(2)冒著/面臨…的風(fēng)險;
5. emerge : 出現(xiàn) emerging market 新興市場;
6. ruin 毀滅
7. halt 停止
8. accelerate 加速
9. Nonetheless 但是
句子解析：
第一句：Even the biggest law firms may be anachronistically inefficient.
參考譯文：甚至一些大的公司可能效率都很低下，這是時代病。(副詞單獨(dú)成句)
第二句：They are run by lawyers ,not professional managers, insist on charging by the “billable hour” rather than by results and use little technology more advanced than e-mail.
解析：They are run by…,insist on…and use…這里動作的發(fā)出者都是they，三個動詞的并列。
Little…more advanced than…=級(little是否定詞，否定加比較=級)考場上看不懂也不用慌，總之在說律所的缺點(diǎn)。
參考譯文：這些公司是由律師來經(jīng)營的，而不是職業(yè)經(jīng)理人;他們堅(jiān)持按小時收費(fèi)，而不是按結(jié)果收費(fèi); 他們用的最先進(jìn)的技術(shù)就是電子郵件。
第三句：Nonetheless, most big law firms have continued to be highly-profitable.
參考譯文：但是大多數(shù)的大公司賺取著高額的利潤。
第四句：Only now is a serious threat to the law firms’ cozy existence emerging.
解析：Only now 置于句首引起句子的部分倒裝。
正常語序：A serious threat to the law firms’ cozy existence is emerging only now.
參考譯文：直到現(xiàn)在，對于法律公司(律師事務(wù)所)舒適存在的嚴(yán)重威脅才開始出現(xiàn)。
第五句：Law firms that are sub-scale and inefficient risk ruin.
解析：Law firms risk ruin.
參考譯文：那些規(guī)模不大的效率不高的法律公司面臨破產(chǎn)的危險。
第六句：The Walmarts and Amazons of professional services are at their gates, and the legal industry’s halting pace of creative destruction is set to accelerate as a result.
解析：professional services: 這個表達(dá)一般指法律，咨詢，財(cái)務(wù)等業(yè)務(wù)。
Walmarts and Amazons 曾經(jīng)對零售業(yè)產(chǎn)生了巨大的沖擊，所以后來習(xí)慣用他們來比喻行業(yè)的改變者。
creative destruction： 如果破壞是為了更好的未來，那么這樣的毀滅就是有創(chuàng)造性的
參考譯文：職業(yè)服務(wù)的變革者已經(jīng)兵臨城下了，因此，法律行業(yè)逐漸停下的創(chuàng)造性破壞的步伐就該準(zhǔn)備加速了。