The shield is modeled on the coat of arms of the family of Isaac Royall, whose bequest endowed the first professorship of law at Harvard.

Harvard Law Today reports.

Harvard Corporation agrees to retire HLS shield

The Harvard Corporation has approved the recommendation of the Harvard Law School Shield Committee to retire the HLS shield, which is modeled on the family crest of an 18th century slaveholder.

“The Corporation agrees with your judgment and the recommendation of the committee that the Law School should have the opportunity to retire its existing shield and propose a new one,” wrote Harvard President Drew Faust and Senior Fellow William F. Lee in a March 14 letter to HLS Dean Martha Minow.

They also wrote that with the HLS bicentennial approaching in 2017, “we believe the School should have the opportunity to propose a new shield, that in the report’s word’s ‘more closely represent[s] the values of the Law School’ – one conducive to unifying the Law School community rather that dividing it.”