Law in Popular Culture
Law Firm Funds Controversial Phila. ‘Justice’ Mural
Posted Nov 10, 2008, 10:56 am CST
By Martha Neil
A proposal to put a 38-foot mural promoting the theme of American justice on the side of a building in an upscale neighborhood in Philadelphia has proven controversial.
Apparently concerned that the art work being sponsored by the Spector Gadon & Rosen Foundation at the law firm for which attorney Paul Rosen serves as board chairman is too downscale, neighbors have protested the foundation's plan to fund the project and donate the art work to the city's Mural Arts Program, reports the Associated Press.
The planned Courtyard of Justice mural "portrays a leafy scene in a stone courtyard with statues of legal giants such as attorney Clarence Darrow and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall," the newspaper writes. Some 2,800 such murals are already up around the city, and rarely if ever have been controversial.
"How could anybody complain about this?" wonders Rosen. "A mural about justice is proper in every neighborhood."