ABSTRACT
The number of avocats increased from about 7,000 in 1968 to about 33,000 in 1996. Some see the Dreyfiis case as a turning point: intellectuals did more than the avocats to secure Dreyfus' vindication, and went on to assert their own role as public conscience. An occasional elite school graduate seeks admission to the bar, and some avocats have received high government posts, at least during the presidency of former avocat Francois Mitterrand. In France, a 1900 statute imposed the admission of women on an unwilling bar, and as late as the 1960s some old-timers were writing that women avocats were deficient in abstract thought. Although avocats may respect the important role of lawyers in the United States, and envy their incomes, they also hope to avoid many American practices. The portrait of the United States bar that some avocats paint has a cubist style, presenting simultaneously a number of dark facets.
