What should a law firm logo include?

Your firm’s name, set in a clear typeface, and at most one simple mark such as a monogram or a shape. Leave out taglines, founding dates and practice-area lists. They make the logo unreadable at small sizes and belong on your website instead.

Should a law firm logo use scales of justice?

You can, but it will look like many other firms’ logos, and the fine lines of scales, columns and gavels blur at favicon size. A monogram or a simple shape that relates to your name is usually easier to recognize.

What colors work best for a law firm logo?

One main color and, if you want, one accent. Choose a main color dark enough to read on white, and check the logo also works in plain white on a dark background and in a single color for print.

What file formats do I need for my law firm logo?

An SVG master, a monochrome and a white version, large transparent PNGs, a square version for profile pictures, favicon files for your website, and a PDF for printers. Ask for the font names and color values too.

Do I need to register my law firm logo as a trade mark?

Not to use it, but you should at least search the official registers before you commit to a name and logo. Whether to register is a decision to take with an intellectual property adviser. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Law Firm Logo: Ideas, Examples and What Makes One Work

What a law firm logo has to do

A law firm logo is mostly seen at the size of a fingernail. A prospective client meets it first as a favicon in a browser tab or a search result, then as the small square next to your name on Google, then in the header of your website on a phone. Letterhead and office signs come later, if at all. So the test of a good law firm logo is simple: can someone read it, and recognize it again, when it is 32 pixels wide?

That test rules out most of the ideas you see on logo galleries and template sites: thin lines, detailed scales, columns with fluting, long names in script, and taglines inside the logo. It also points to what works. A clear name in a good typeface, one or two colors, and, if you want a mark, a single bold shape that still reads when it is tiny.

Every logo on this page is an original drawing for a fictional firm. None of them is, or imitates, a real firm’s logo.

Three types of law firm logo

Almost every law firm logo is one of three types. Each suits a different firm.

Type	What it is	Suits	Watch out for
Wordmark	The firm’s name, set in a chosen typeface, with no separate symbol	Firms with a short or distinctive name; most new firms	Long names get tiny on a phone; you still need a square version for avatars
Monogram	Initials or one letter, usually alongside the full name	Named-partner firms and solo lawyers who practice under their own name	Interlocked or script initials that nobody can read
Symbol and wordmark	A simple shape or picture beside or above the name	Firms with a place name or a word name that suggests an image	Clichés, fine detail, and stock icons that other businesses also use

Wordmarks

A wordmark is the cheapest logo to get right and the hardest to get wrong. The work is in the typeface, the spacing and one small detail that makes it yours: an italic ampersand, a short rule, a bar in the accent color. For a favicon you take one letter from it.

Wordmarks for fictional firms. 01 Harlow & Pike: a book typeface with one italic ampersand in the accent color, which is all the personality it needs. 02 Brennan Quill: spaced capitals in a plain sans-serif with a short rule, readable on any screen. 03 Delacroix Moss: the name stacked on two lines, so it fits a phone header, with a coral bar that can stand alone as a small mark. 04 Callender Rowe: lowercase sans-serif between two rules, a quiet nod to the lines of a deed.

Monograms

A monogram gives you a square mark for the places a wide name will not fit: the favicon, the Google profile picture, a social avatar. It works best when the letters stay plain. Overlapping script initials look elegant at poster size and turn into a knot at 32 pixels.

Monograms for fictional firms. 05 Okafor Family Law: one serif letter on a rounded teal square with a coral underline; the square is the favicon and the profile picture. 06 Tamsin Reyes Law: plain bold initials in an outlined square, so the mark reads in one color on a sign or a fax. 07 Whitcombe & Lyle: both partners’ initials in a solid circle that survives a circular crop. 08 Ines Varga Law: the I and V drawn as two plain shapes in two colors instead of typed letters.

Symbol and wordmark

A symbol earns its place when it connects to your name or your clients, not to the law in general. A place name, a bird, an object in the firm’s name: these give a designer something specific to draw. Keep the symbol to one solid shape and one detail, and make sure it still reads with the name removed.

Symbol and wordmark logos for fictional firms. 09 Fernhill Immigration: an open archway with the sun rising at its threshold, one shape and one detail, about arriving rather than about the court. 10 Kestrel Lane Defence: a swept wing taken from the firm’s name, solid enough to work as a favicon. 11 Quillon Wills & Estates: a folded document with a seal, a plain picture of what the firm actually produces. 12 Strand & Adebayo: two overlapping squares for two partners, one filled and one outlined so it still works in a single color.

Why scales, columns and gavels are overused

Scales of justice, classical columns and gavels say “law” and nothing else. A client comparing three firms on a map sees three similar marks and remembers none of them. They also fail the size test. Scales and columns are made of thin lines and small gaps, and at favicon size they blur into a grey smudge. A gavel is also an odd symbol for most small firms, because family, immigration, estates and property work happens mostly in offices and on the phone, not in front of a judge with a gavel.

You do not have to ban legal imagery. If you love a column, draw it as one bold shape with no detail, and test it at 16 pixels before you approve it.

The size test, with two fictional firms. 13 Ashby Corran: a scales-and-column seal inside a double circle, with the name in small capitals. It looks detailed at full size; at 32 and 16 pixels the lines and the lettering disappear. 14 Penrose Atwell: a single bold P on a rounded square with one apricot dot. It reads at every size, and the dot gives the firm something to repeat on its website.

Color and type: keep it to one or two

Pick one main color and, if you want, one accent. The main color carries the name, so it needs to be dark enough to read on white. The accent is for a detail: an ampersand, a dot, a bar. More colors than that make the logo harder to reproduce on a sign, an email signature or a printed form, and gradients do not print or embroider well at all.

Before you approve colors, ask to see the logo three ways: full color on white, all white on your main color, and one color on its own. If it only works in full color, it is not finished.

For type, choose a face that is easy to read at small sizes. A sturdy book serif or a plain sans-serif both work. Avoid script, very thin weights, and the high-contrast display serifs that look elegant on a poster but lose their hairlines on a phone. Ask your designer to tell you the typeface’s name and to confirm the licence covers a logo, so your website can use a matching font.

How your logo sits on your website, phone and Google profile

Most firms approve a logo as a large image on a white page. Ask to see it where it will actually live. Our law firm website examples show twelve fictional firms' logos in real headers, on desktop and on a phone.

Website header. On a desktop the logo usually sits top left, at roughly the height of a line of navigation. A long one-line name gets very small there. A stacked version (name on two lines) or a mark plus a short name often reads better.
Phone header. The header on a phone shares the width with a menu button and often a call button. Check the name is still legible at that width, or use the square mark with a short name.
Google Business Profile. You can add a logo to your Google Business Profile. Google asks for JPG or PNG images between 10 KB and 5 MB, recommends 720 by 720 pixels and sets a minimum of 250 by 250. A square mark fills that space far better than a wide wordmark squeezed into a square.
Favicon. Google’s guidance for the icon shown beside your site in search results asks for a square image of at least 8 by 8 pixels and recommends one larger than 48 by 48, in a format such as PNG or ICO. It also asks that the favicon represents your brand, so use your mark, not a generic icon.
Phone home screen. When someone saves your site to an iPhone home screen, Safari uses an apple-touch-icon; Apple’s documentation lists 180 by 180 pixels for current iPhones.

One fictional logo, Okafor Family Law, in four places. The rounded square mark does the work wherever space is tight: the phone header, the circular profile picture and the browser tab. The full name appears only where there is room for it.

A brief you can give a designer

Whether you use a freelancer, a studio or a logo tool, a short written brief gets you a better first round. Copy this and fill it in.

Firm name exactly as it appears on your registration, plus any short form you use on the phone.
What you do and for whom. Practice areas, and the kind of client you want to attract.
Three words for how a client should feel when they find you, for example calm, direct, approachable.
Where it will be used. Website header on desktop and phone, Google Business Profile, favicon, email signature, letterhead, office sign.
Must pass: readable at 16 pixels as a favicon, works in one color, and has a square version for profile pictures.
Colors. Any you like, and any to avoid, such as the colors of a firm near you.
Examples you like from any industry, with one line on why.
What you do not want. For example scales, gavels, columns, script lettering or a tagline inside the logo.
The files you expect at the end (see the list below).
Rounds and ownership. How many rounds of changes are included, and a written transfer to the firm of copyright in the final design.

Logos come from free logo makers, freelancers and branding studios, and the cost rises steeply along that line. For most new firms a skilled freelancer working from a brief like this is enough. If you use a logo maker, read its licence. Its icons are often available to every other user, so you may not own the mark outright.

Files to ask for

Many firms end up with a single JPG of their logo and nothing else. Ask for the full set before you pay the final invoice.

File	What it is for
SVG master, full color	Your website header; stays sharp at any size
SVG monochrome and all-white versions	Dark backgrounds, monochrome printing, engraved or cut signs
Transparent PNG, large (about 2,000 pixels wide)	Documents, email signatures and anywhere that will not accept SVG
Square PNG of the mark, 720 by 720 pixels	Google Business Profile logo and social profile pictures
Favicon set: PNG and ICO (48 by 48 or larger) and a 180 by 180 apple-touch-icon	Browser tabs, search results and phone home screens
PDF or EPS	Printers and sign makers
A one-page style sheet	Typeface names, color values (hex, RGB, CMYK) and the minimum size and clear space around the logo

Check the name and logo before you commit

Search the official trade mark registers before you print anything. In the US, the USPTO’s Trademark Search system lets you search federal applications and registrations. A clear result there does not mean nobody else uses the name, so also search the web, your state’s business records and the lawyer directories in your area. In the UK, GOV.UK’s Search for a trade mark page links to the Intellectual Property Office’s search, where you can look up marks by keyword, phrase, owner or image. If you later apply, the IPO checks whether your mark is the same as or similar to existing marks.

Your firm name also has to follow your regulator’s rules on how firms may describe themselves, and a logo cannot fix a name that breaks them. Whether to register your logo is a decision to take with an intellectual property adviser. This is a summary, not legal advice; check the current rules where you practice.

Common law firm logo mistakes

Fine detail that disappears at favicon and profile-picture size
A tagline, founding date or list of practice areas inside the logo
Interlocked or script initials that nobody can read
Three or more colors, or a gradient
A wide logo with no stacked or square version
Only a JPG, with no SVG, no transparent PNG and no favicon
A name or mark close to another firm’s in the same area
Approving it on a white page instead of in a phone header and on a Google profile
A stock icon from a logo maker that other businesses also use

If you are still setting the firm up, the logo is one line on a longer list. Our checklist for starting a law firm online covers the domain, email, website and Google profile that the logo has to sit on, and website setup explains how SmartFirm HQ builds that website, live within seven days of your two approvals.

Law firm logo: ideas, examples and what makes one work