34Justice in a Garden

On the side of a little 1955 law office in the Dean Highland neighborhood, Lady Justice stands blindfolded among sunflowers, wisteria and monarch butterflies, her scales raised — and her sword lowered, wrapped in rose petals. Above her, in plain schoolroom lettering, the line Dr. King wrote from a Birmingham jail cell in 1963: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The office belongs to a solo attorney whose practice is the unglamorous, essential kind — family cases, criminal defense, kids in the CPS system — and the wall reads like her closing argument to the whole street: justice with the sword down and the flowers up. There are little spotlights planted in the lawn, aimed up, so the mural is lit at night like the gallery piece it is. Drive by after dark and see a law office keep the lights on for an idea.