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"I was ungainly, awkward, a fat kid. I didn't feel comfortable," Flom remembers.
“我還是一個難看、笨拙、一身肥肉的男孩。我覺得非常郁悶，”弗洛姆回憶說，
"I was one of two kids in my class at the end of hiring season who didn't have a job.
“到了應聘季節快結束的時候，我們班有兩個人依舊沒找到工作，我是這兩個人中的一個。
Then, one day, one of my professors said that there are these guys starting a firm.
有一天，我聽我的老師說有些家伙開了一家律師事務所。
I had a visit with them, and the entire time I met with them, they were telling me what the risks were of going with a firm that didn't have a client.
我就去拜訪他們，在交談的整個過程中，他們給我強調到一家還沒有一個顧客的公司干活的風險。
The more they talked, the more I liked them.
他們越是這樣說，我越是喜歡上了他們。
So I said, What the hail, I'll take a chance.
所以我說，即使是地獄，也應該試一試。
They had to scrape together the thirty-six hundred dollars a year, which was the starting salary."
他們每一年只有3600美元的收入，這是最初的薪水來源。
In the beginning, it was just Marshall Skadden and Leslie Arps, both of whom had just been turned down for partner at a major Wall Street law firm,
起初，經營這個律師事務所的只有馬歇爾·斯克登（MarshallSkadden）和萊斯利·阿爾普斯（LeslieArps）——此前他們希望成為華爾街一家大的律師事務所的合伙人，但被拒絕了
and John Slate, who had worked for Pan Ann airlines.
另外一個合伙人，就是在泛美航空工作的約翰·斯萊特（JohnSlate）。
Flom was their associate.
弗洛姆成為了他們的合伙人。
They had a tiny suite of offices on the top floor of the Lehman Brothers Building on Wall Street.
他們在華爾街雷曼兄弟大樓的最上一層擁有幾間辦公室。
"What kind of law did we do?" Flom says, laughing. "Whatever came in the door!"
“你知道我們的法律業務開始怎么做嗎？”弗洛姆笑著說，“但不管怎樣，最終一切都還是送上門來了。”
In 1954, Flom took over as Skadden's managing partner, and the firm began to grow by leaps and bounds.
1954年，弗洛姆成為了世達律師事務所的任事股東，這時，事務所開始飛速發展。
Soon it had a hundred lawyers. Then two hundred. When it hit three hundred, one of Flom's partners, Morris Kramer, came to him and said,
事務所擁有了100名律師，很快這個數字就變成了200，當事務所的律師達到300個的時候，弗洛姆的一個合伙人——莫里斯·克萊默（MorrisKramer）找到他，
he felt guilty about bringing young law school graduates.
對他說自己覺得心虛，因為很多律師都是剛從法學院畢業的年輕學生。
Skadden was so big, Kramer said, that it was hard to imagine the firm growing beyond that and being able to promote any of those new hires.
世達已經夠大了，克萊默說，很難想象再擴大規模和增加雇傭人員的事務所是什么樣子。
Flom told him, "Ahhh, we'll go to one thousand." Flom never lacked for ambition.
弗洛姆告訴他：“啊哈，我們的計劃是達到1000名員工。”弗洛姆從來就不缺乏野心。
Today, Skadden had nearly two thousand attorneys in twenty-three offices around the world and earns well over $1 billion a year,
現在的世達律師事務所已經擁有了2000多名員工，23間分布在世界各地的辦公室，事務所每年的收入已經超過了10億美元，
making it one of the largest and most powerful law firms in the world.
它成為了世界上規模最大實力最強的律師事務所之一。
In his office, Flom has pictures of himself, with George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton.
在他的辦公室，掛著他和喬治·布什、比爾·克林頓合影的照片。
He lives in a sprawling apartment in a luxurious building on Manhattan's Upper East side.
他現在住在曼哈頓上東城區一棟豪華住宅的休閑公寓里。
For a period of almost thirty years, if you were a Fortune 500 company about to be taken over or trying to take someone else over,
在過去的30年中，如果你接管了一家福布斯五百強的公司或者接管的是另外的一家公司，
or merely a big shot in some kind of fix, Joseph Flom has been your attorney and Skadden has been your law firm, and if they won't, you probably wished they were.
或者你注定要成為大亨，那么，約瑟夫·弗洛姆就應該是你的律師，而世達就應該是你選擇的律師事務所——如果不是，那么你最好再認真考慮考慮。
