What to Give a Lawyer,
and What a Lawyer May Accept

Law students take their notes on legal pads, as they will for the rest of their careers, so the gift that goes to class every day is the one that carries the pad. The Brief ($245), our own padfolio, holds the pad, a pen and the day's handouts, and it is the piece a student is still carrying into a courtroom ten years on. The Docket ($195), our zip portfolio, closes over the lot and survives the bottom of a bag; the Joy in the Morning binder portfolio ($195) is the choice for a student who wants rings. Under the pad, Korchmar's Carter desk pad ($110) goes on the desk for the next three years and then follows the graduate to the first office.

A leather journal is a different gift, and a good one. It is for what the syllabus leaves out: a diary of the year, the ideas worth keeping, notes on the books read for pleasure, and the private questions, comments and observations not fit for the legal pad. The Desk Leather Journal ($95), made by Gallery Leather in Trenton, Maine, is the right size for that; the Large Leather Journal ($115) for a student who writes a lot.

The first good pen belongs here too, and it should be a pen a student can lose without grief. The Sheaffer 300 comes as a ballpoint ($44 in glossy blue), a rollerball or a fountain pen (to $76 in glossy black and gold), and it is the pen for three years of outlines. For a student who already writes with a fountain pen, the Pelikan P205 ($176) is a serious pen at a student's price. The laptop goes everywhere a law student goes, so the bag matters more than the briefcase does: The Chambers ($545), our own laptop bag in full-grain leather, or the Orlando ($330) from Time Resistance. For a student who would rather carry it all on both shoulders, A Bend in the River ($345), a full-grain leather backpack that will still look right on the first day of work.

The small leather goods are the gifts for the aunt, the grandparent and the friend. Three years of reading are three years of reading glasses, and The Riddle of the Sands glasses case ($65 to $70), in Italian vachetta, folds flat in a bag. The move to a law-school apartment is the moment for the Ryder dopp kit ($175), Korchmar's full-grain dopp kit, and for a wallet that will last through the bar exam and the first job: The Retainer ($155), our bifold, or the Excellent Women zip-around wallet ($110) from Time Resistance, in black or cognac.

A law school graduate is not yet a lawyer. The bar exam comes in July, the results in the fall, and the first day of work somewhere between. So the graduation gift looks past the summer to the first interview, the first client meeting and the first commute. The Brief padfolio ($245) or The Docket zip portfolio ($195), from our own House Collection, holds a legal pad and a résumé and looks right across a table from a hiring partner; the Joy in the Morning binder portfolio ($195) is the choice for a graduate who wants rings. For the commute, The Chambers laptop bag ($545), or the Orlando laptop bag ($330) and The Sound of the Mountain briefcase ($330), both in Italian vachetta from Time Resistance. For the pocket, The Retainer bifold wallet ($155), which replaces the one that saw the graduate through school. For a graduate who will not fill a fountain pen, the Esterbrook Estie rollerball ($169).

For a daughter graduating from law school, with $200 to $600 to spend: the Shirley work tote ($445) or The Woman in White ($325) if she carries a bag to work, the Vendetta attaché ($430) if she carries a case, or the Esterbrook Estie with an 18-karat nib ($590), a pen she will still be signing with in twenty years. A son gets the same list with the Orlando in place of the tote. With less to spend, the Excellent Women zip-around wallet ($110), which a woman lawyer will carry every day, or The Counsel card case ($115) for the cards that come with the first job.

Results from the July exam arrive state by state from late August into the fall; Florida's and Georgia's came on 18 September this year and Illinois's on 1 October, and others follow through the fall.¹⁰ The February exam reports in the spring. Whenever the news comes, the gift is the pen, for a reason beyond tradition: the first thing a new lawyer does with the license is sign something, and the pen that signs the first pleading is the one that gets kept.

It is also the easiest gift in this guide. Until the oath is taken the recipient is not yet a lawyer, so no rule of professional conduct reaches the gift, and the firm may give as freely as the family.

A pen for someone who just passed the bar, with $100 to $300 to spend: the Esterbrook Estie rollerball ($169) for a lawyer who will not fill a fountain pen; the Estie fountain pen ($179) or the Pelikan M200 ($176 to $192) for one who will. Esterbrook is a name that dates to Camden, New Jersey, in 1858. Under $100, the Sheaffer 300 in glossy black and gold: $60 as a ballpoint, $76 as a fountain pen, and a pen a new associate can carry into a deposition without a second thought. Add a bottle of ink to any fountain pen; Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black ($16) is the one to start with. A friend who wants to mark the day without buying a pen gives The Counsel ($115), our card case, for the cards that follow the license, or The Riddle of the Sands glasses case ($65 to $70). Which pen suits which hand is the subject of two earlier guides, Fountain, Rollerball, or Ballpoint? and Fine Nib, or Medium?

The admission ceremony is the day the family gives the pen that is meant to last. From parents, the Pelikan Souverän M400 ($500) in the black-green stripe that is Pelikan's signature, or the Estie with an 18-karat nib ($590). From a family that means it, the Souverän M800 ($740), the M400 at full size, or the M1000 ($876), the largest of the line. For a new lawyer who will not uncap a fountain pen in a courtroom, the Souverän R800 rollerball ($476) or K800 ballpoint ($396).

The second gift is for the business cards that arrive the same week. Our own card case, The Counsel ($115), holds the cards that are handed across a table; The Retainer ($155) is the bifold for the pocket. The S.T. Dupont Iconic billfold ($375), the Paris house's wallet in black leather, is for a new lawyer whose old wallet has done its time, and the Excellent Women continental wallet ($110) for one who carries more than cards. Which case suits which habit is Card Case, or Card Wallet? The third, for the files, is the Vendetta attaché ($430). If the person taking the oath is becoming a judge rather than a lawyer, the rules change entirely, and The Pen, or the Plaque? is the guide to read.

The first trial, the first verdict, the first closing a lawyer runs alone: these are the dates lawyers remember, and the giver is usually a spouse or a colleague, so the gift is smaller and more particular. The Professional Weekly planner ($115) rules each weekday in half-hours, which is a trial day by another name, and its monthly pages run from July 2026 to June 2028. The Large Leather Journal ($115) becomes the trial notebook, and the Pocket Weekly planner ($47) rides in the jacket to the courthouse. The planners can be foil-stamped by the maker with the lawyer's name or initials, $8 to $15 more; allow eight business days. A pen that marks the occasion without ceremony is the Esterbrook Estie ballpoint ($115). From a colleague, something smaller still: The Riddle of the Sands glasses case ($65 to $70) for the reading glasses that come out for the exhibits, or The Recess luggage tag ($75) for a lawyer who tries cases out of town. Why a lawyer should still keep a paper calendar at all is Paper, or Screen?

Partnership is announced when the firm votes, and the gift that fits it is the one a lawyer rarely buys for herself: a briefcase that will outlast the title. The Churchill ($715), made by Korchmar in Naples, Florida, is the one we point to first, in tan or black. The Silk ($1,295), our own structured briefcase, is the other; the two are compared in The Churchill, or the Silk? For a partner who already has a case, the Pelikan Souverän M800 ($740), or the S.T. Dupont Classique ballpoint ($475) for the signing table, from the Paris house that began in 1872 making cases for diplomats, with its Iconic billfold ($375) to match.

The givers are a spouse, parents and the other partners, and no rule of professional conduct restricts any of them. The firm's own gift to its new partner is the firm's business.

For a partner's twenty-fifth year at the firm, with $500 to $1,500 to spend: the Pelikan Souverän M1000 ($876), the largest pen Pelikan makes, with a bottle of ink, for a lawyer who has signed with lesser pens for a quarter century. The Churchill ($715), if the case that carried the first twenty-five years has earned its retirement. Or The Silk ($1,295), if the title deserves a case that was made for it.

If the lawyer already uses a lighter, an S.T. Dupont is the one gift here that is also an heirloom: the Ligne 2 Perfect Ping ($1,295), named for the note its cap makes. If you have to ask whether they would use it, give the pen.

A firm's gift to its own partner raises no rule of professional conduct. The one number a firm should know is the tax one: a business deducts no more than $25 per recipient per year for gifts,⁸ which is why so many corporate gifts come in at $25 and says nothing about what the firm may give. We are not tax advisers; the firm's accountant will know how the gift is treated.

Retirement widens the circle: colleagues, family, former partners and former clients may all give, and the gift looks forward rather than back. The Large Leather Journal ($115), for the memoir or the notes toward one. The Souverän M1000 ($876), if the career never had its pen. For the travel that follows, The Circuit passport wallet ($175) and The Recess luggage tag ($75), a name that suits an adjournment now made permanent, with the Ryder dopp kit ($175) in Korchmar's full-grain leather or the Madame Bovary jewelry roll ($100) for the trips that no longer wait for a recess; and for the reading that finally gets done, The Riddle of the Sands glasses case ($65 to $70). For a lawyer retiring to a desk at home, the Carter desk pad ($110) under the pen.

In a government office, retirement is the occasion the rules name: colleagues may give a retiring federal lawyer "a gift appropriate to the occasion" on an occasion that ends the working relationship, "such as retirement, resignation, or transfer."⁶ A former client may give too; the modest measure of Rule 1.8 is still the sensible one, and a letter that says what the lawyer did for you is the part of the gift that will be read more than once.

The comment to Rule 1.8 permits "a simple gift such as a present given at a holiday or as a token of appreciation,"³ and the gifts here are chosen to be exactly that. The Desk Leather Journal ($95). The Esterbrook Estie ballpoint ($115). A Sheaffer 300 ($60 to $76). A 2027 planner, pocket ($47) or desk ($115), which a lawyer will open every working day of the year you were a client. The small leather goods belong here too: The Riddle of the Sands glasses case ($65 to $70), the Excellent Women zip-around wallet ($110) for a lawyer who carries more than cards, The Counsel card case ($115) for one who carries fewer. None of these could be mistaken for a fee, and none requires the lawyer to draft anything.

Write the note. Lawyers keep files, and a letter of thanks is the one page in the file the lawyer did not write. If your lawyer was a public defender, a prosecutor or counsel to an agency, the gift rules in Ground IV apply and the office may be unable to accept anything but the letter; send it anyway, copied to the supervisor, where it does more for the lawyer's career than a package could.

Have it sent to you, not to the lawyer. The packing slip shows what you paid, so have the order sent to your own address and hand the gift over yourself.

Personalization. We do not monogram, emboss or engrave. The one exception is the Gallery Leather dated planners, which the maker can foil-stamp with initials or a name. To personalize anything else, write to us before you order and we will see what our makers can do.

Buying for a firm. A firm buying for several lawyers at once, or for its clients, should start at For Firms. The occasion-by-occasion shopping grids, with four pieces for each, are on our Gifts page.