Legal-department retreats, some observations, and an article by Rees Morrison

One of the most common management activities among law departments, of all sizes, is the offsite (aka retreat, legal conference, annual meeting, etc.). As my article describes , these gatherings can have wonderful events.

I have just completed helping with two retreats, one for a law department of three lawyers and one of thirty lawyers and I feel even more the importance of doing them right.

More and more I feel that (1) getting to know each other is by far the most important activity, (2) boredom rules the day for most people most of the time when they attend a retreat, and (3) for most of the attendees, it is a chore. Sigh, because the potential is so great (See my post of Feb. 12, 2008: with eight references cited; Feb. 17, 2008 #3: Insights Preference Evaluator as a tool at a retreat; and Feb. 25, 2008: virtual reality games as a retreat.).