Date of Award

1-1-1985

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Business and Vocational Education

Abstract

Statement of the Problem. The problem of this study was to identify the relative importance, as perceived by lawyers involved in the private practice of law, of topics to be included in a law office management course.Procedures. Participants in this study were private practice lawyers in North Dakota, randomly selected from the North Dakota 1980 Directory of Judges and Attorneys. Fifty percent of the lawyers determined to be private practitioners were selected. A total of 423 private practitioners were mailed questionnaires; the usable rate of return was 246.Treatment of the Data. Lawyer responses were statistically analyzed using subprograms of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The subprogram for t tests was used for independent samples, while one-way analysis of variance was used to test for significant differences among group means. The SPSS subprogram ONEWAY was used to test for significant differences between and within groups. The Newman-Keuls' test was applied to a topic with a significant F value; the test involved a structured nesting procedure. The superior power of the Newman-Keuls' test was due to using a less stringent error rate than an experimentwise level for all comparisons.Conclusions. Recognizing the limitations of this study, the researcher drew the following conclusions based upon the findings from this research study: (1) In certain situations, size of law firm, size of community, age of lawyer, undergraduate degree granting institution, and undergraduate major showed some significance at the .01 level. (2) Little relationship exists among the referent variables and prior training sessions or courses on law office management. (3) Private practice lawyers participating in this study generally agreed that a course in law office management prior to beginning the practice of law would benefit law students. (4) Based on the results of the F test, topics in the following content areas were perceived as being important and should be included in a law office management course: records management, business communications, employee human relations, staffing, ergonomics, accounting, and miscellaneous topics.

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