The logo must be easy to read, and leave a viewer feeling confident and the impression that the firm is distinguished. The logo can be just the name of the firm, it may/may not have a symbol, and could even appear as a stamp (like those round address stamps (foil or impressed)). The logo must be able to be printed or published anywhere (must look good on 8 ½ x 11, envelopes, website, etc…).
Colors: It is important that the logo look good printed in black & white, but preferable colors (choose one or two max.): blue, green, silver, gray, black. Certainly, I’m not opposed to looking at different colors, but I will probably gravitate to deeper, richer colors.
Not the “cookie cutter” balance, gavel or lady of justice. I’m not completely opposed to the use of any of these, I just don’t want to see a cut and paste of the basic symbols that can be found all over the net.
Go here to see an example I like
https://www.aslegal.com/logos.asp?ID=stationery&Fam=01&mnid=2. I like Style #SL4—note many of the other examples on this page are way too busy (strongly dislike the first example on that page).
Go here to see some examples
https://www.aslegal.com/Brand/Printing/Gallery.asp# : for both Muller Law Group and J.H. Cohn, I do not like the symbol—just too cookie-cutter, would probably like w/o the symbol; Climaco—don’t like the symbol—too busy. The rest of these examples are nice.
TYPESETTING: Go here to see typesetting I like and dislike:
https://www.aslegal.com/wording.asp?mnid=1&eventType=NEW%20FIRM#sample . The first is o.k, the middle is way to difficult to read, and the last one is my favorite on this page.
Important to look here to see how the logo must look good on business card/envelope/stationary:
https://www.aslegal.com/otsmain.asp?mnid=2