Harvard Law School is in the midst of a search for a new shield, having retired the previous one in 2016 due to the Royall family’s involvement with slavery. While Dean Manning has assured Student Government that the working group tasked with selecting the new shield is making steady progress, its operations have generally been opaque. To remind the school that the search for a new shield is indeed underway and to inject some much-needed life into the discussion of what symbol we ought to pick to represent ourselves, I’ve taken the liberty of suggesting a few designs that seem fitting.
At first glance this might appear to be nothing more than a shameless rip-off of the YLS shield. But that is far from true. Because merely ripping off our rival’s shield would be the kind of pettiness that the noble students of HLS are supposed to be above. It would be unoriginal. It would be sophomoric. It would be precisely the kind of conduct that one would expect of a YLS student.
No, this is a different thing entirely from the YLS shield. The new HLS shield is crowned with the word “VERITAS” — Latin for truth. The fact that YLS has deliberately chosen to not have the word “truth” written on its shield is telling.
The heraldry is also starkly different. The YLS shield is adorned by an alligator — a nod to the scaly, reptilian, cold-blooded demeanor of the typical YLS student. It is also a weak attempt at a pun. (alligator … a litigator … get it?). Unlike YLS, HLS takes legal education seriously. That is why our shield is adorned by a crocodile. The crocodile is perhaps the most fearsome and resilient creature to have ever walked the Earth, having survived from the age of the dinosaurs. A crocodile was the only thing that Captain Hook ever feared. And crocodiles are known to be bigger and more aggressive than alligators. HLS graduates are similarly known for their perseverance, for striking fear into oppressors and villains, and for having bigger reputations than YLS graduates. Thus, the symbol is quite fitting.
The YLS shield is also adorned by a greyhound dog, a reference to one of the early leaders of YLS, Judge David Daggett. No, Judge Daggett did not have any special affinity for greyhounds. The designer of the YLS shield simply decided that Daggett was close to “Doggett,” and the first three letters in “Doggett” spell “dog,” and that was that (no, seriously, that is the real reason: https://law.yale.edu/about-yale-law-school/glance/our-history/yale-law-school-shield). Meanwhile, the proposed HLS shield is adorned with a cat, in honor of Remy, Harvard’s cat-in-residence and a gracious friend to all Harvard students.
Finally, the proposed HLS shield is adorned with staples. This is a reference to the hard-fought battle to get staplers installed in the HLS printers, a battle that we finally won this fall after years of student activism. The YLS shield is coincidentally also adorned with staples, paying homage to their founder, Seth Staples (again, seriously, that is the actual reason: https://law.yale.edu/about-yale-law-school/glance/our-history/yale-law-school-shield). So yes, if HLS adopts the above shield then both HLS and YLS will be represented by staples. However, in the case of HLS these staples would represent a great civic victory, while in the case of YLS they would be the product of the dubious choice to represent one’s law school with an office supply for no other reason than word association.
Perhaps the new HLS shield should depict the high point of the school’s history. And this, of course, occurred a couple weeks ago when that brave little bird took up residence in the library: https://abovethelaw.com/2019/10/theres-a-bird-loose-inside-harvard-law-school-time-to-call-cat-lawyer/
In addition to representing this seminal moment in the school’s history, it is an altogether fitting symbol, as there is nothing more emblematic of the HLS student than a creature that chose to live full time in the library.
An institution’s reputation is founded on the achievements of its top graduates. But also, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So, it would make some sense for the school to be represented by either its most renowned former student — Bruiser — or by its most ignominious — Warner.
This work, Ode to the Gunner, manages to do in one stroke what the Bruiser and Warner entries can only do in combination: It represents all at once the best and the worst that HLS has to offer. “Best” as determined by class rank. “Worst” as determined by everything else.
There isn’t much good that can be said about the McPoyle family from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But at the very least they wouldn’t be the worst family ever honored on an HLS shield.
The noble turkeys that wander Harvard’s campus are the closest thing to a mascot we have. They also have the good sense not to get stuck in the library, putting them a couple notches ahead of some of their avian cousins. Then again, perhaps the fact that they have lived on campus for so long without once entering the library would make them more apt mascots for HBS than HLS…
As whatever shield we choose is primarily going to be put into service adorning Patagonia jackets, why not just cut out the middleman? Patagonia jackets need not be decorated with the HLS shield if the HLS shield is already decorated with a Patagonia jacket.
Because you are what you drink three cups a day of…
Or perhaps you are what you eat day in and day out…
Or perhaps you are what you’ve relied upon to eke out all of those Ps…
As a final entry, why not represent ourselves by the story with which our community is collectively most familiar: a level III nuisance bear and its fateful encounter with some loose cannon Park Rangers. Justice for A.K. Kovacs!
Billy Wright is the Chief of Staff of the HLS Student Government. He is also the HLS representative to the Harvard Graduate Council, in which capacity he has scarcely been able to perform his duties due to constant taunting by the other Harvard graduate schools for being the only school without a crest.