Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (1830)

More than one commentator has said that the rule of law was the most important development in the last millennium of world history. We have chosen Delacroix’s famous painting of “Liberty Leading the People” to display here as the background of our website because it represents an important step in that development. It represents an important stage in the developing idea of liberty that is so deeply associated with the rule of law in Western civilization.

An early expression of the figure that came to represent Liberty stands atop our Capitol dome in Washington, D.C. She was placed there in the latter half of the 19th century. Delacroix’s painting represents a mid-point in the evolution of our collective imagination and depicts Liberty as she emerges from Man’s political struggles against tyranny.

Of course, Liberty has since found her most famous expression in the Statue of Liberty, which stands today in New York harbor. The formal name of that Statue is “Liberty Enlightening the World”. It is worth reminding ourselves that, as portrayed in that statue, Liberty holds a torch of enlightenment in one hand and a tablet -- a book of laws -- in the other.

Delacroix’s painting reminds us -- Liberty was born in struggle and contest; Liberty is preserved today in struggle and contest. We think it is worth reminding our clients and friends that an important way in which Liberty is preserved is in the daily conflicts in our legislatures and courtrooms and in our acceptance of the rule of law which governs the outcome of those conflicts. We respect and are proud to participate in that process. Recent developments in other parts of the world remind us of how difficult life would be without this process.

On October 28th, 1886, when President Grover Cleveland accepted the Statue of Liberty on behalf of the United States, he observed: "We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home...

We could not say it any better.