"the whole legal hive"

Repository of Legal Arcana.

"The clock struck ten, and clerks poured in faster than ever, each one in a greater perspiration than his predecessor. The noise of unlocking and opening doors echoed and re-echoed on every side ; heads appeared as if by magic in every window ; the porters took up their stations for the day ; the slipshod laundresses hurried off ; the postman ran from house to house ; and the whole legal hive was in a bustle." --Dickens, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Vol. II, at 357.

The metaphor of legal bees is old, but the swarms of lawyers that shape modern life give new meaning to it with ever-expanding activities.

"The commons, like an angry hive of bees, That want their leader, scatter up and down, And care not whom they sting in his revenge." --Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Act III, Scene 2.

The metaphor of the hive of lawyer bees has been seen applied to lawmakers for centuries, and it is still appropriate. Indeed, capital domes bear an uncanny resemblance to bee hives.