Starting law school
Most askedAugust and September
Five hours a day with the casebooks. Something to carry them in, and something to write in the margins with.
Gifts
You are buying for a lawyer.
Every occasion in a legal career, from the first class to the last day of practice, and what we would send for each.
What to give a lawyer, on film
Chapter I
Becoming a lawyer.
From the first class to the oath. Each occasion links to What to Give a Lawyer, and What a Lawyer May Accept, Field Guide No. 12, which explains every choice and cites the rules.
Graduation
Commencement, in May
Three years, finished, and the bar exam still ahead. The family's gift: the bag that will carry the first job's files, or the pen for the career.
Passing the bar
When the results come in
The longest wait in a career ends with an email. A good pen is the right answer to it — it will sign the first appearance.
Swearing-in
Admission day
The day the profession says you are one of us now. The fountain pen for a career long enough to deserve marking, and a case for the cards that arrive the same week.
Chapter II
The practice.
A firm or a practice of one's own, the first win, the big one, the partnership, a sabbatical, the long anniversary.
Joining a firm as an associate
The first day at the firm
A desk in someone else's firm, and a partner who notices what comes into the conference room. A padfolio for the meeting, a portfolio for the files that go home at night.
Opening your own firm
The day the door opens
The other road from the oath: a practice with one name on the door. A case for the first trial's files, cards with that name on them, and a desk that is finally the lawyer's own.
Winning your first case
The first win
Lawyers remember the first one by its date. A gift from the people who heard about every week of it: the pen, a portfolio for the next file, or the book that keeps the day.
A substantial verdict or closing
The verdict, or the closing
A result people will talk about for years deserves a gift sized to it: the briefcase for the next trial, or the pen for the next signing table.
Becoming partner
When the firm votes
The fountain pen the senior partner hands over at the celebration, or the briefcase worth the title: the gift a lawyer rarely buys for herself.
A sabbatical
A season away from the practice
Few firms grant one, and the lawyers who take one go to teach, to serve abroad, or to write. Leather for the travel, and a journal for what the months are for.
A long anniversary
The twentieth or twenty-fifth year
Size the gift to the years, not the year: the largest pen Pelikan makes, or the briefcase the title has earned.
Chapter III
The close of a career.
A career ends in one of four ways: retirement, of counsel, the bench, or public office.
Retirement
The last day of practice
The career is closed; give for what comes next. A journal for the memoir, and leather for the travel that no longer waits for a recess. From the whole firm, something finer: an S.T. Dupont lighter, the piece no one buys for themselves.
Of counsel
Stepping back, not stepping out
Fewer days at the firm, often a smaller office, and the same name on the letterhead. A lighter briefcase for a lighter docket, a calendar that still matters, and a desk set for the work that remains.
Appointed to the bench
The appointment
A friend is going to the bench. Not a gavel and not a novelty: a fountain pen worthy of the orders they will sign. The rules on who may give change the day they take the oath of office, and our page for judges sets them out.
Elected to office, or entering government service
The oath of office
A lawyer leaving practice to serve, elected or appointed. Family and close friends who pay for it themselves are the easiest givers; anyone with business before the office meets that office's gift rules first, and a letter of congratulation is welcome everywhere.
Any time
The holidays, and the thank-you.
The holidays and birthdays
This seasonDecember, and the birthday
The gift a spouse or a parent gives every year. Something used every working day of the next one, rather than something finished by the second week of January.
The client's thank-you
When the matter closes
Expressly allowed, and modest by design: nothing that could be mistaken for a fee, and nothing the lawyer would have to draft. Write the note as well.
Before you give
With a lawyer, the rules are few, and none is hard.
Family and friends
Give what fits the occasion; no rule of professional conduct reaches a birthday. Even a federal lawyer may accept a gift plainly given out of family or friendship, so long as you pay for it yourself.
A client
A simple thank-you is expressly permitted: the comment to ABA Model Rule 1.8 names “a present given at a holiday or as a token of appreciation.” Keep it modest in proportion to the matter, never give anything the lawyer would have to draft, and write the note.
A lawyer who sent you a client
Nominal, and plainly a thank-you. Model Rule 7.2 allows a gift neither intended nor expected to pay for the referral. A good pen at the holidays passes; anything priced to the size of the matter does not.
A government lawyer, or a cap
Anyone with business before a government office has small limits to respect: under the federal rules, $20 an occasion and $50 a year from one source. Companies and some firms cap what their lawyers accept; ask the lawyer's assistant, tell us the number, and we will keep under it.
Where to start
By what it costs, and what it does.
Under $150
The Sheaffer 300 in any of its three forms, the Estie ballpoint, the leather journals, the desk pad, the glasses case, The Counsel card case and The Recess luggage tag. Small pieces with long lives — and the desk pad in particular is the gift nobody thinks to give a student who reads five hours a day.
The pen
A Sheaffer ballpoint begins under $50 and its fountain pen under $80; the Esterbrook, Pelikan and S.T. Dupont pens begin around $125 and climb from there. A ballpoint is the honest first pen — it gets carried and used. A rollerball is the middle course: the wet line of a fountain pen, none of the ritual, and the safer answer when you do not know how someone writes. The fountain pen is the one for an admission, a partnership, or a career long enough to deserve marking.
The piece that carries the day
Portfolios begin just under $200, bags around $250, briefcases above that. From our own House Collection: The Brief, The Docket and The Chambers. The most-used object in a working life, and the one where the wrong choice is most obvious by October.
Everything, in one place
Every piece we would give a lawyer, from the first week of law school to the last day of practice, in one collection. For a judge, a collection of its own, chosen with the rules on who may give in mind.
Before you buy
Three things we will tell you plainly.
Have it shipped to you
Every parcel leaves with a packing slip that shows the price. If the piece is being handed over in person, send it to your own address and carry it the last mile yourself.
How it arrives
The Sheaffer, Esterbrook, Pelikan and S.T. Dupont pens arrive in their makers' presentation boxes, the journals in their own gift boxes, and Time Resistance boxes every piece. We cannot wrap anything here; the product page says what arrives.
We will say when it is wrong
Including when it is something we sell. A card case is a fine gift for someone who has business cards, and the wrong one for someone two years away from having any.
House pieces carry the warranty. Curated pieces carry the Assurance for thirty days from delivery, then the maker's own — Korchmar five years, Time Resistance and Xikar lifetime.
Buying for several people
A firm gives at five moments.
The year's end, the partnership vote, the oath, a closing, and the end of a long career. If you are buying for a class or a partner group, write to us before you order rather than after — it is easier to work something out before the order exists.
- The occasion is the thing. The object only has to be equal to it.
- The mark worth having is the one another lawyer recognizes, and no one else does.
- Nothing offered that we wouldn't carry ourselves.