Halloween is less than a week away now! Have you carefully curated the perfect costume? Or are you just realizing that the month is more than halfway over already? Whether you’ll be the highlight of the costumed office party or want to bring a little legalese into your weekend soiree, we have some quick and easy costume ideas that you can pull together at the last minute.
Here they are, some of our favorite ideas for last minute Halloween costumes for legal professionals and amateurs alike: the scary, the punny, the goofy, and the collaborative.
Missed deadline
We’ll start with the ‘scary’ one first.
Get an oversized calendar page and circle one of the dates in red ink. Glue two to three nerf gun bullets to the page, far from the circled day. Hang the paper around your neck, and you’re all set.
Role swap
Have a good relationship with your boss? Can both of you take a little teasing in good fun? Swap roles for the occasion, and get a taste of what it might be like to fill each other’s shoes.
A salt and battery
Here’s one of the puns we promised. Pick an office pal and patch together a salt shaker for one of you and a battery for the other. And just like that the two of you become a misdemeanor offense, punishable by up to one year in county jail.
A law-suit
Maybe you prefer to keep things formal? Wear a suit, as usual, then write out a law on a piece of paper and hang it around your neck or pin it to your lapel. Ta-da, now you’re a law-suit.
Pageantry
Have you always wanted to win a contest where you got to wear a crown? Dress up as Miss Demeanor or Miss Trial this Halloween by draping a pageant-style sash across your chest with your holiday title written on it, and wear that crown. It has a certain DC villain feel to it, no?
Favorite TV legal professionals
Theme-ify your office and encourage everyone to dress up as a quirky legal professional from the big or little screen.
- Elle Woods – What do you mean you don’t have a pink skirt suit already?
- Better Call Saul – Hand out cards with some of his best lines written on them, and practice a devil-may-care attitude.
- Daredevil – Become Matt Murdock in a suit with sunglasses and a cane. Bonus points if you have a superhero suit hiding behind your button-up.
Table of authorities
Find a large piece of cardboard and cut a hole in the center that is big enough to fit your torso through. Paste slips of paper all over the top of your ‘table’ with the written names of authority figures. You can use the general “police officer,” “governor,” or “doctor.” Or get specific with well-known authority figures like the name of your boss, expert witnesses you use, and local government officials or judges.
Attach additional strips of cardboard on each corner to complete the ‘table’ look for a Table of authorities.
Exhibit A
In the last, last minute category, you can be an exhibit. Don a white shirt and find a large square of red paper. Write ‘Exhibit A’ in big letters and pin the card to one arm like the tabs of pre-eFiling days.
For a group spin-off of this idea, have several of your coworkers be Exhibits B-D, and have another dress carry a sign with a list of your names and Exhibit numbers around their neck. Boom: Table of contents.
Pair-a-legals
Recruit a coworker who needs a last minute costume, and put fake IDs for you both inside a badge holder—make sure the dates identify you as being 18 or older. Wear them around your neck for the day to become a “pair a legals.”
That’s our assortment of silly and easy last-minute Halloween costumes for legal professionals. We hope that you got a good idea or two.
If you and your office will be dressing up, One Legal would love to see pictures! Whether you used one of these costume ideas or came up with your own, share snapshots with us on Facebook or Twitter, or send us an email and we may feature them in a post-Halloween photo blog.
Happy Halloween!
