What is a word for a group of lawyers analogous to a "gaggle" of geese, a "pride" of lions, a "leap" of leopards etc?

A contention?

I just found an interesting site when searching for someone else’s version of the group designation:

firm: an assemblage of lawyers. Similar to a "pride" of lions, "gaggle" of geese "school" of sharks, or "bunch" of bananas, although sharks also frequently congregate in firms (as do a few bananas).

I found that on this site, where there are some other amusing definitions

http://www.lawinc.com/vakalat/Wordmeaning.htm

For animals, see the Matrix Animalis put together by the Agora’s own Ekkis.  

Expensive.  

I’ve often wondered who makes these things up. Some of them seem so artificial they seem designed purely for pub quizzes. I can understand the need for a collective term such as "herd" or "flock" or "shoal", but it sometimes seems that every species and subspecies has its own collective noun. Recently in a crossword puzzle one of the clues was "The name for a group of goldfinches". Answer: charm. A charm of goldfinches. Why? Do you get charms of greenfinches too, or is that something different again?

I think somebody is actually just having a laugh with us. Those nice people at the Oxford Dictionary occasionally go to the pub for someone’s birthday, and their way of letting their hair down is to sit around inventing obscure collective nouns.

I’ll stop there.

Jonah.

firm: an assemblage of lawyers. Similar to a "pride" of lions, "gaggle" of geese "school" of sharks, or "bunch" of bananas, although sharks also frequently congregate in firms (as do a few bananas).

I had once heard that a group of sharks was called a "requiem"....Is this true?  And does anyone know of a good resource which lists all these strange terms for animal groups?

- Robby

[quote author=Robearsn link=board=what;num=1078951992;start=0#7 date=03/12/04 at 15:38:55]

I had once heard that a group of sharks was called a "requiem"....Is this true?  And does anyone know of a good resource which lists all these strange terms for animal groups?

- Robby

Robby,

See Post #3 above for the Matrix Animalis, although it doesn’t have "requiem" listed for sharks.  

[quote author=Robearsn link=board=what;num=1078951992;start=0#7 date=03/12/04 at 15:38:55]
And does anyone know of a good resource which lists all these strange terms for animal groups?

There’s a whole bevy of them. Can we talk about a bevy of websites? I found a raft of them by googling "collective nouns" and "list". You can save yourself the trouble by clicking here.

Jonah.

In Argentina we just call them a group of ravens…

Funny, I usually think of them as vultures…

-Tim

[quote author=Tim Ward link=board=what;num=1078951992;start=0#11 date=03/16/04 at 12:27:15]Funny, I usually think of them as vultures…

-Tim

Sharks.  Why don’t sharks attack lawyers?  Professional courtesy.  

Perhaps a bar of lawyers (or a bar of barristers in the UK)?

"Bailiff, take this man before the bar!"
"Hic!  Thanks, yer honor!  I’m god-awful thirsty!  Whadda they got on tap?"

A quote attributed to Founding Father John Adams in the play "1776":

"I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, two men are called a law firm, and three or more become a Congress."