Somehow my September 15, 2008, blog entry about our law firm’s symbol became elusive online, so I reprint it here:

At the Trial Lawyers College, the inevitable day comes when everyone is handed a paintbrush, and is told to tell an important personal story through painting, without regard to technical artistry. As it turned out, when I did the painting exercise, some of the most meaningful paintings at first looked as rudimentary as those done by elementary schoolers while the final piece of one of the more talented brush-masters told more of an a la carte menu than an integrated and deep story.

When I launched my previous law firm’s website in 1999, I chose the Statute of Liberty as the website’s symbol, which embraced justice in general, and logically covered my criminal defense work and Jay Marks’s immigration work. Now with my new law firm, I unveil my new logo of the scales of justice within the yin-yang, which is a symbol used — among other things — to represent the Chinese martial art of t’ai chi, which I have been practicing for fourteen years, as well as representing one of the five principles of t’ai chi (separating one’s weight in yin-yang balance). T’ai chi very much defines my approach to trial battle, convinced that t’ai chi principles are essential for the powerful road to litigation victory and to keeping powerfully harmonized no matter what bows, arrows, urine, vomit, and feces I must deflect and neutralize from opponents and others.

The scales of justice shown within the yin-yang symbol also involve the principles of balance and harmony that are part of the yin-yang. If the yin-yang is seen as rooted in the East and the scales of justice as rooted in the West, bringing them together arguably completes the yin of the East to the yang of the West, thus creating a global yin-yang.

Cheng Man Ch’ing, who developed the form of t’ai chi that I practice, talked of permeating one’s chi into the five traditional Chinese excellences of t’ai chi, Chinese medicine, painting, calligraphy and poetry. To that list, I add permeating my chi into the practice of law and my service to my clients.

ADDENDUM: T’ai chi ch’uan/taijiquan helps me achieve powerful calm in the eye of the storm.

My law firm’s above-displayed symbol is about pursuing victory with an eye towards getting a client’s unbalanced situation back to balance and to offset the often insufficient results from merely balancing on the scales of justice. This approach I about a total focus on clients’ interests with powerful calmness at every turn.