Published on:

A multi-disciplinary view of law department management

Some academic disciplines have shined brightly on this blog. What have been plentiful are teachings from psychology (See my post of July 21, 2006 on psychology and references cited; and Jan. 27, 2006 on the endowment effect.) and sociology (See my post of July 19, 2006 and references cited.). Because of what intrigues this author, readers have enjoyed a constant importation of ideas from economics (See my post of March 26, 2006 and references cited.). Recently, a number of posts have drawn on science, notably neuroscience (See my posts of May 30, 2006 and references cited; June 7, 2006 on attention density; Aug. 20, 2006 on neuro-economics; and April 13, 2007 #3 on cooperation.).

Other disciplines have had their moments in the sun. The blog has drawn occasionally from an historian’s viewpoint as well as the concepts of philosophy (See my posts of Feb. 19, 2006 regarding Whig history and eras of law department management; and Dec. 31, 2006 [two posts] on pre-1900 references to law departments; together with Sept. 29, 2006 on some concepts from philosophy as they apply to law department management; Feb. 27, 2007 on under-determination; Feb. 23, 2006 on argument diagrams; May 31, 2006 on values; and Sept. 22, 2005 on whether we inadequate humans can grasp law department abstruseness.).

Academic disciplines mostly in the dark here include social anthropology, architecture (See my posts of Feb. 20 and Nov. 19, 2005 on cubicles (“open plan”) for lawyers; Nov. 8, 2005 on movable desks at SEI; and March 23, 2007 on office proximity and interaction.), and ethnography (See my post of Dec. 16, 2005.). Also in the shade have been perspectives from politics (See my posts of Oct. 10, 2005 on infighting for succession; Oct. 24, 2006 on rumors, and back-biting.) and, other than statistics, mathematics (See my post of Feb. 1, 2007 on IBM’s applied math department.).

If I could find references to law departments in literature, I could exploit literary criticism. Another omission, God forbid, has been theology, but it is no revelation that law department managers worship a pantheon of totems and taboos.