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Harvard Law Announces New Shield Design

Harvard Law’s infamous shield is getting a facelift.

The law school announced the newly designed shield Monday after an extensive design research process.

“I am grateful to the members of the HLS Shield Working Group and to the members of our community for taking part in the important process of establishing a new shield for Harvard Law School,” Harvard Law School Dean John F. Manning says in an email to the HLS community.  “I believe that the simple, elegant, and beautiful design of this shield captures the complexity, the diversity, the limitlessness, the transformative power, the strength, and the energy that the HLS community, in Cambridge and throughout the world, sees in Harvard Law School. I am also moved by the idea that, by combining the words lex et iustitia, with our shared motto veritas, we make explicit that Harvard Law School stands for truth, law, and justice.”

VALUES REPRESENTED

The new shield’s design features Harvard’s traditional motto, “veritas” (Latin for truth) displayed in crimson across the top. Right below sits the Latin phrase for law and justice, “lex et iustitia.” At the bottom of the shield are eight overlapping lines inspired by the architectural elements of Harvard Law’s Austin and Hauser halls.

According to the HLS Shield Working Group, research behind the new design relied heavily on three main themes: a diverse and pluralistic community, leadership that changes the world for the better, and the fundamental pursuit of law and justice.

“Harvard Law School’s commitment fundamentally to the idea of law and justice was a concept that was very important to convey in the shield because, like I remember saying in my HLS yearbook, the school’s enduring preoccupation is to turn out individuals committed ‘not just to the finest practice of law but to the greatest measure of justice’,” Dan Eaton, former president of the Harvard Law School Association who also served on the Working Group, says. “Another thing that was very central in the discussions was the idea of the importance of the rule of law as something that affects every possible area of human endeavor.”

Moreover, the Working Group says that the new design is a symbol of just how diverse the Harvard Law community is.

“It’s not necessarily the flashy, dramatic emblem some might have sought, but it does have an understated elegance to it: not unlike the law itself,” Edi Ebiefung, a member for the Working Group, says. “The new shield speaks to the vastness and interconnectedness of HLS and is an emblem future students will be proud of.”

Sources: Harvard Law Today, HLS Shield Working Group

 

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