The Wild Pig Theory of Law Journal Creation

When I was a young associate at a large law firm, I discovered something interesting about partnership management structure.  I called it The Wild Pig Theory of Law Firm Management.

Here it is in its simplest and most elegant form:

If there was a herd of wild pigs rampaging through the office, no one would mention it, because the first person who did would be appointed chair of the Ad Hoc Committee to Rid the Firm of Wild Pigs. 

It is law review submission season again.  If you use Expresso, you can scroll through some 600-700 places to submit your work.  There are hundreds of specialty law journals.  Carved out a niche for yourself in maritime law?  There are a handful of journals just for you.  Animal law?  Check.  Criminal law?  Of course.  Business law?  Dozens and dozens.

You know where this is going.

There is no single, general comprehensive law journal devoted to all things Property.

There are timely land use journals, innovative IP journals, cutting-edge human rights journals that may occasionally include property related issues, cranky law-and-economics journals still applying game theory to trespass, and estate and gift tax journals for those unafraid of math.

But there is no one journal that would, for example, be the natural home of the impressive scholarship produced at the ALPS conference each year.

Here's the thing: I can't create it, and probably neither can you.  I don't have the time or resources.  You probably don't either. 

But, I thought it was worth asking:  Anybody good at herding wild pigs?

Because it sure would be nice.

Mark A. Edwards