Has anyone written on the history of law departments? Early references to law

I would welcome hearing from readers about law departments formed years ago. Here are two examples. According to his obituary, NY Times, June 22, 2006, Arthur Wood joined Sears in 1946. The first task for the graduate of Harvard Law School in 1937, who had spent about four years at the law firm of Bell, Boyd & Marshall in Chicago was to set up the Sears’ legal department. Thus, the law department was formed in 1946-7. My post of Aug. 27, 2005 on Edith Spivack noted her remarkable stint of 70 years with the New York City Law Department, where she was hired in 1934 as assistant corporation counsel. Even then that department was long in the years, judging from John Greener, History of the Office of the Corporate Counsel of the City of New York (M. B. Brown 1907).