Ordo ex Chao

Back in July, Rees Morrison, one of the leading thinkers in Law Department management, kindly quoted a comment of mine to his blog:

A theory of in-house lawyers between the devil client and the deep blue sea

A few days ago, Jon Olson, the thoughtful general counsel of Blackbaud,commented on my post about legal departments as multi-dimensional (mathematical) spaces. He explained his own theory:

“One theory that I find useful is the idea that law departments essentially manage the externalities of a business. That is to say, law departments manage the friction point where the untrammeled corporate will meets the greater society. It happens that many of these friction points are legal in nature; and the many that aren't strictly legal still benefit from good "lawyering" skills (e.g., the ability to communicate clearly, analyze an issue, build consensus). As such, the "space" is at the intersection of corporate strategy and the outside world, with all the layers of politics, culture, personal preference, laws, legal delivery systems, internal process and policy, risk appetite, and technology that entails. Multi-dimensional, indeed !”

Olson certainly envisions a transcendent, fundamental role for legal departments, on the ramparts between clients and the world with the protection going both ways. My image of in-house legal teams is less grand, to be sure, but Olson certainly sketches a fascinating perspective about the attributes lawyers can bring to bear and the contribution they can make.

Posted by Rees Morrison on July 29, 2010

Earlier that month, I had responded to another of Rees Morrison’s posts on positivism and law department management:

Positivism and its perspectives on knowledge about law department management

The set of philosophical beliefs known as “positivism” holds that objective truth exists, that humans can accurately understand those truths, and that scientific tools best enable us to do so. Measurement, rationality, certainty, and comprehension are neither ironic nor useless terms; they connote reliable and effective beliefs that are backed up by known truths. Those who put metrics and benchmarks on a pedestal adhere to positivistic beliefs. This blogger believes that we can actually know and understand much about legal departments and how they operate.

In opposition to positivistic views of knowledge are postmodern views (See my post of Sept. 22, 2008: postmodern critiques of best practices.). Postmods do not believe in objective facts or that ways of thinking have primacy over other ways of thinking. Much or all of what we perceive and think we comprehend is mere social construction, relative to a time and a place, subject to epistemological weaknesses of all kinds. This blogger sort of understands postmodernism, intellectually, but feels that as a way of coming to grips with effective management of legal departments it offers nothing constructive. My bent is pragmatism shot through with positivism.

Posted by Rees Morrison on July 8, 2010

My response:

I think that in-house counsel are necessarly positivists- not too many C-level executives or Board members are keen on having strategic plans, risk assessments, and financial forecasts deconstructed through a prism of relativism.

That said, many of the foibles of corporate life, sometimes irrational and occasionally ironic, do seem amenable to a post-modern interpretation.

Perhaps in-house counsel are the ultimate positivists, creating Ordo ex Chao, even where there is little order to be found.

Thanks for the food for thought.

-Jon W. Olson
GC, Blackbaud, Inc.

I offer these two items to shed further light on my philosophy of the role of in-house counsel. I do have a rather expansive concept of the role that law departments can play, but it does give us something to aspire to. And as Rees Morrison wrote me, Ordo ex Chao sounds like the motto for a coat of arms for GCs everywhere. Perhaps someone should design the coat of arms shield.

One other note- as summer officially ends, I will resume my previous schedule of one post weekly, usually on Monday.