A Tale in Which An Internet Mystery Delivers Inspiration
So the quest for a name began. We needed a name that reflected our core values and defied the conventions of traditional law firm naming. It was time to walk the walk on collaboration. Our combined teams’ first test of the collaborative, no egos-approach to problem-solving was the departure from the traditional letterhead of last names. There were phone calls, Zoom sessions, and email exchanges. And like many 21st century quests, there were Google searches galore – including this fateful query:

With clients and customer service as our first priorities in a field that regularly uses Latin terminology, Lorem seemed like an inspiring starting place. There was just one problem. Being the resolute and diligent attorneys that we are, we weren’t going to move forward without corroboration. And, when the rest of the team dug further on the word, no one could find any other connections between the word Lorem and Google Translate’s meaning. It was a mystery.

Determined to get to the bottom of the Lorem translation, we kept digging. And we discovered that a glitch in the Google Translate algorithm sometimes spits out words from the well-known placeholder text “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,” often used in publishing before actual content is inserted. It turned out that our front-runner name was derived from what appeared to be an error in the code, and a placeholder for new content. Back to the drawing board, right? Wrong.

When we looked into origins of the famous “Lorem ipsum” dummy text, we discovered that while it doesn’t translate to English, its origins are anything but nonsense. The passage comes from a 2000-year-old treatise on the theory of ethics by Cicero. As a firm committed to holding ourselves to the highest ethical standards, this was a great bit of serendipity. Rather than being deterred, Lorem stuck with us as a strong possibility.

Lorem might not exactly mean client, but it certainly evokes it for us. Lorem certainly provided a placeholder for writing our story, and it is traced back to ancient classic literature evoking ethics. We knew we were on the right track, but the name still needed something.

Our search lead onward to discover that the Latin word “officium” had various means including “service”, “a sense of duty”, and “courtesy”.

It turns out what Lorem needed was – ium. In addition to a nod to “officium”, this suffix is found at the end of words borrowed from Latin roots and creates a noun referencing the characteristics of the root word. It added a modern feel and a flexibility that speaks to the kind of practice we want to have.

So, as it turns out, Lorium does not have a direct translation. Rather, Lorium demonstrates that our clients are our focus, and we are defined by our culture of duty, courtesy, and service to our clients, our colleagues, our profession, and our community.

WE are Lorium

For us, Lorium is synonymous with client service, mutual understanding, efficacy, uncommon perspective, sound judgment, and adaptability. It represents collaboration and the setting aside of ego and competition to achieve a shared goal and result. We embrace the lack of a literal translation and the fact that the word Lorium represents our story to build upon.

We look forward to writing the Lorium story with our clients and colleagues, and we welcome you to come along for the ride.