Magistrate judge is breathing fire over law firm's dragon logo on legal pleadings
A lawyer who wanted his pleadings to stand out has been ordered to remove a large purple dragon watermark from each page of a lawsuit that he filed in federal court. (Image from Jacob A. Perrone’s April 2 complaint)
A lawyer who wanted his pleadings to stand out has been ordered to remove a large purple dragon watermark from each page of a lawsuit that he filed in federal court.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ray Kent of the Western District of Michigan ordered lawyer Jacob A. Perrone of the Dragon Lawyers law firm to refile the April 2 complaint—without the logo of a dragon in a business suit. Nor can the firm include the logo on other new filings.
“Use of this dragon cartoon logo is not only distracting, it is juvenile and impertinent,” Kent wrote in his April 28 order. “The court is not a cartoon.”
The Volokh Conspiracy, Above the Law, Law360 and the New York Times have coverage.
Perrone, the managing member of Dragon Lawyers in East Lansing, Michigan, told Law360 that he has always used watermarks, although “probably not as dominantly as that one was.” He bought the dragon logo online for about $20 to help market his firm, which he recently opened, he told the New York Times.
Perrone started using the large watermark about a month ago and didn’t encounter problems in state court, he told Law360.
“I want my pleadings to stand out,” he told the legal publication.
Perrone told Law360 and the New York Times that he will comply with the court order.
“I regret putting it on the pleadings so prominently displayed,” he told the New York Times.
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