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Nearly a decade has passed since an aspiring young lawyer in California, Anna Alaburda, graduated in the top tier of her class, passed the state bar exam and set out to use the law degree she had spent about $150,000 to acquire.
近十年前，加利福尼亚州怀有一腔抱负的年轻律师安娜·阿拉布尔达(Anna Alaburda)以在班上名列前茅的成绩毕业，并通过了州律师资格考试，开始要利用自己花了大约15万美元换来的法律学位。
But on Monday, in a San Diego courtroom, she will tell a story that has become all too familiar among law students in the United States: Since graduating from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2008, she has yet to find a full-time, salaried job as a lawyer.
但周一，在圣地亚哥的一家法院，她将讲述一个对美国的法律专业学生来说再熟悉不过的故事：自2008年从托马斯·杰斐逊法学院(Thomas Jefferson School of Law)毕业以来，她尚未找到一份带薪的全职律师工作。
From there, though, her story has taken an unusual twist: Alaburda, 37, is the first former law student whose case against a law school, charging that it inflated the employment data for its graduates as a way to lure students to enroll, will go to trial.
但从这里开始，她的故事发生了一个不同寻常的转折：37岁的阿拉布尔控告法律学校夸大毕业生就业数据，以此诱骗学生入学。这也成为了首起即将开审的此类案件。
Other disgruntled students have tried to do the same. In the last several years, 15 lawsuits have sought to hold various law schools accountable for publicly listing information critics say was used to pump up alumni job numbers by counting part-time waitress and other similar, full-time jobs as employment. Only one suit besides Alaburda's remains active.
其他一些心怀不满的学生也试过这么做。过去几年里，共有15起诉讼案件试图追究各种各样的法律学校公开发布不实就业信息的责任。批评人士称，这些学校通过把兼职服务员及其他类似的全职工作算作就业的方式，抬高毕业生就业数据。除阿拉布尔达这起案件外，只有一桩诉讼案仍在处理过程中。
None of the other cases reached trial because judges in Illinois, Michigan and New York, where several cases were filed, generally concluded that law students had opted for legal education at their own peril, and were sophisticated enough to have known that employment as a lawyer was not guaranteed.
其他案件无一走到审理环节，因为在出现了多起类似诉讼案件的伊利诺伊州、密西根州和纽约州，法官普遍认为，法律专业的学生是自己冒险选择接受法律教育的，且他们足够成熟，知道不一定能以律师的身份就业。
But a California judge let Alaburda's suit proceed, brushing aside efforts by the law school to derail her claims.
但加利福尼亚州的一名法官不顾托马斯·杰斐逊法学院试图让阿拉布尔达的诉讼半途而废而采取的行动，允许案件继续往前推进。
“It has taken five years,” said her lawyer, Brian A. Procel of Los Angeles. “But this will be the first time a law school will be on trial to defend its public employment figures.”
“用了五年时间，”阿拉布尔达的代理律师布莱恩·A·普罗塞尔(Brian A. Procel)说。“但这一次，法律学校将首次走上法庭，为自己对外公开的就业数据辩护。”
Alaburda's day in court will take on added meaning: These will be her first public words after years of silence while she pursued a remedy for a legal education gone wrong.
阿拉布尔达走上法庭还有另外一层意义：在经历了多年一言不发地寻求法律教育的补救措施却无果后，这将是她首次公开发声。
