Get one of these gifts for your retro-tech friends and they’ll say thanks for such a remarkably thoughtful present. Probably with a handwritten card in perfect cursive.
The post 7 Analog Attorney Gift Ideas Too Amazing to Miss appeared first on Articles, Tips and Tech for Law Firms and Lawyers.
This gift-giving season, reward the attorney in your life with one of these seven luxurious gifts. Because coming up with lawyer gift ideas is notoriously difficult, and because everyone always tries to find something “legal” (don’t do that), we’ve hand-selected the following through a painstaking yearlong process that I started yesterday. So, let’s get into it.
The gifts on this year’s list are ferociously opulent. And, OK, perhaps one or two are in here for shock value. Or because your writer is obsessed with handmade globes.
1. The Ultimate High-Ticket Utterly Over-the-Top Fountain Pen
Montegrappa’s Odyssey Chapter 1
I saw this pen at Atlas Stationers in Chicago and immediately planned to sell a kidney so I could get it. Montegrappa is known for its over-the-top fountain pens. Just take a moment to scroll through their page of insane writing instruments for proof. They’ve been in business since 1912, making the kinds of high-end pens that are no-brainer presents for a lawyer. If you can afford them.
The Odyssey Chapter 1 is over $11,000 (eleven thousand bucks), but you get so much for your money. The craftsmanship goes beyond the mere human into the realm of elven smithing. The barrel is decorated with 12 friezes depicting the major scenes from Homer’s Odyssey in stunning detail. The scenes are rendered in vermeil, which sounds like something from a Tolkien novel but is actually silver gilded with gold. The cap re-creates a Corinthian plinth decorated with acanthus leaves and a tiny silver figurine atop a miniature column. The flat top of the plinth is filled in with mother of pearl and I’m just gonna stop right there because I’m having an emotional experience just typing this.
The pen comes in a gorgeous crimson box illustrated with an image of Odysseus. Inside the box, the pen rests inside a Trojan horse. Look, it’s too magnificently decadent to explain. Just look at the picture below. If you are thinking about the perfect gift for a name partner, this is it. (If you agree a fountain pen is an amazing fit, keep scrolling for a few recommendations that won’t melt your credit card.)
Less Expensive, But Still an Insanely Opulent Lawyer Gift
The “Wheatfield with Crows” Van Gogh series ballpoint pen from Visconti is beautiful, well-crafted, and has a soft, buttery flow. Your humble report owns a Visconti Van Gogh fountain pen and can assure your lawyer of a splendid writing experience. (If you agree a fountain pen is an amazing gift, keep scrolling for a few more recommendations.)
2. Further Fountain Pen Accessory Overload
The Good Made Better Penwell Classic
This is one of the best lawyer gift ideas for the attorney in your life who uses a fountain pen every day. A penwell is a small wood or metal object that holds your favorite pen when you’re not writing. It sits on your desk, affixed by a micro suction pad, and its aperture is filled with a custom foam insert. You slide your pen into it cap-first, and the foam insert grips your pen by its cap. When you want to write, you just snatch your pen out of its cap and scribe your heart out. When you’re done, stick it back in. It may not sound like much to those who are not pen freaks, but for lawyers who write a lot, it is a godsend because you don’t have to constantly remove and replace the cap of your pen.
This penwell is available from Good Made Better in walnut, cherry, aluminum or brass.
3. Not All Luxury Lawyer Gift Ideas Are Expensive
The 3-Inch Scissors from Tools to Live By
They’re just scissors. And they are tiny scissors — only 3 inches of blade. They’re brass, which is not normally associated with luxury. But the reason they are a great lawyer gift idea is owed to the luxury of their design. They’re either hip and cool or totally adorable, depending on who you give them to. Tools to Live By is a stationer from Tapei. Their calling card is offering ordinary desktop items and stationery elevated to priceless, heirloom-quality status. The company also curates top-quality stationery from established brands like Dux (Germany) or Authentic Models (Netherlands).
4. Give Them the Whole World
50-inch Traditional Churchill Globe from Bellerby & Co. Globemakers
This is a ridiculous gift idea and I feel ever so slightly ridiculous adding it here, but the Churchill Floor Standing Globe from Bellerby & Co. is one of those bespoke gifts that will impress for decades. Each globe is painstakingly handcrafted, colors are applied by hand via watercolor washes, and cartographic details are added individually. The whole thing takes forever to make. Customers are encouraged to purchase a gift card and get in line. But the product is unsurpassed.
Bellerby & Co. is one of those companies that does something nobody else will or can do because it’s insane. They start by crafting a perfect resin sphere. Then, the map — developed according to the customer’s preferences — is printed and painted, cut and finished, and applied to the globe. Months or even years later, the globe is fitted into a brass meridian on a wooden base and shipped to the lucky recipient — all for the cost of a Lexus.
Less Expensive But Still Crazy Globe-Loving Lawyer Gift Idea
The Explora in Honey Brown by Zoffoli is a gorgeous globe hiding a lovely bar. It is a 40cm globe of an 18th-century map with an antique appearance. Its gnarled legs and wooden meridian maintain the vintage appearance. Keep your most expensive whiskey in it.
5. A Portfolio Cover Worth the Money
The Expansi-Folio by Galen Leather
After the $60,000 globe, maybe we should dial it back a little with something from Galen Leather in the $120 range ($14 more for monogramming).
Galen loves writers, and writers (ahem) love them some Galen Leather. Their Writer’s Box and Writer’s Bag are on my short list of things people should give me. But it’s their zippered portfolio satchels that get me. I click onto their site at least weekly just to stare at these beautiful covers. The satchel is the perfect size for most notebooks. If you use a Hobonichi, a Leautederm or a Midori, it’ll fit right in there, no problem. I like the variety of pockets, pouches, and loops because I travel with far, far too many pens and stickies for a normal person.
Same Thing, Alarmingly Expensive
The Soho Notebook in Mara by Smythson is a crocodile-embossed calfskin leather journal stained an alarming shade of lipstick red. Every part of it is elevated, from its silk lining to its 192 leaves of gilded-edged, pale blue Featherweight paper. Smythson notebooks are favored by globetrotting elites and explorers like global explorer Ginny Fiennes, the Queen’s dressmaker Sir Hardy Amies, and burlesque icon Greta von Teese.
Buying gifts for the analog-leaning attorney in your life might seem like an impossible task. In a digital-forward gadget universe, finding something cool that doesn’t need batteries or a software update is kind of maddening. Get one of these gifts for your retro-tech friends and they’ll say thanks for such a remarkably thoughtful present. Probably with a handwritten card in perfect cursive.
6. An Excellent Type of Gift
Querkywriter Limited Edition Sage Mechanical Keyboard
As an analog writer, I have a weakness for typewriters. I own a 1944 Smith Corona that could anchor an oil tanker. I regularly troll Marketplace for vintage machines. However, typing is impractical because of its charming analog qualities. You can type out a full page in 12pt Courier and it looks amazing. It feels amazing. Hell, it smells amazing. But you’ll have to type it again to get it into your laptop.
Unless you use the Querkywriter mechanical keyboard. It Bluetooths to Macs and PCs. It looks incredible. And it delivers that vintage clunky performance — while loading everything right into Word (or whatever).
The company offers limited editions, and the sage is one of the prettiest. Like its namesake herb, it is flat green. Like all the Qwerkywriter keyboards, it is beautifully designed and meticulously crafted. Just look at those glass-topped keys. I don’t like to gender-tag gifts, but seriously, if you have an attorney in your life and she likes vintage typewriters, this is a solid choice.
7. The Write Gift for Your Most Stylish Attorneys
Skyler Card from Crane Stationery
Crane Stationery is a world-class outfit. These notecards are beautifully engraved ecru-colored cotton paper cards. You can choose from several typefaces and motifs. But the frog motif in moss green (shown at left below) or clover makes for a collection of 25 whimsical, yet distinctly classy note cards. I prefer the portrait layout because I think it provides a better experience for the recipient. These are not cheap. They’re nearly $6 each so a single box will set you back more than $400. Unless you want a custom return address printed on the reverse, which pushes the cost to $661. However, sending someone a card that was made by hand in London and costs seven bucks makes a hell of an impression.
Less Expensive but an Awesome Alternative
The Classic Monogram Stationery cards by Paperculture are gorgeous and just a buck each when you buy 10. They are printed on recycled paper and Paperculture will plant a tree for each order. Take that, Crane!
Elegant. Stylish. Inexpensive.
Bonus Gift: The Paper Pro from ReMarkable
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our pet tablet, the Paper Pro. It’s in the budget at just under $580 and kind of amazing. We dive deep into it in this article. Check it out.
Can’t Decide? Out of Pocket? Stuck in a Sucky Secret Santa Simulacrum? Or Just Hate Camels?
Have we got the gift for you! For less than $20 you can bring a smile to any attorney’s face by gifting them the greatest book ever written by a guy named Bull from Chicago: “Fat in Paris!“
It’s mostly funny and at least 80% spelled correctly.
Still More Great Gifts for Analog Attorneys
In a digital-forward gadget universe, finding something cool that doesn’t need batteries or a software update is maddening for most people. But for the elves at Attorney at Work, researching the web’s sparkly recesses for the perfect gift is pure delight. We update our gift lists annually, so consider one of these gifts for your retro-tech friends. They’ll say thanks for such a remarkably thoughtful present—probably with a handwritten card in perfect cursive.
Best Pencil Sharpener in the World …
You don’t normally think of a pencil sharpener as a luxury gift but I assure you, handing your favorite analog attorney a Mobius & Ruppert Pollux will make them cry. The Pollux is the best hand-held pencil sharpener in the world. Instead of a perfectly conical point, the Pollux shaves a slight curvature into the tip of your pencil so it’s just barely concave. This gives a longer point so you can write more between sharpenings. Other sharpeners do the same thing but the 18.5-degree curve of the Pollux is unquestionably superior. Solid brass German craftsmanship. Heavy. Will survive a nuclear blast. Price: $35 on Amazon.
And the Best Pencil in the World
The Blackwing 602 is arguably the most famous pencil in pencildom. John Steinbeck burned through 60 a day. Chuck Jones drew Bugs Bunny with a 602. Quincy Jones composed with them. A vintage 602 can go for over $100 on eBay, but you can get one for less. Palamino Pencils resurrected the Blackwing with obsessive (and poetic) attention to detail in craftsmanship and lead composition. They are not cheap: A set of 12 runs around $28, but they are worth every penny and come in black, gray and pearly white. Go with the starter set, with metal caps and the patented Blackwing two-stage sharpener. Price: $27 on Blackwing, also on Amazon for slightly more.
The Perfect Legal Pad
I searched a long time for the perfect legal pad and these brilliant yellow pads from Levenger are among the very best. Designed for busy, organized professionals who appreciate quality, they represent all the best design someone could find in a legal pad: perforated pages, quarter-inch ruled lines in gray so they’re easy on the eyes, a stiff heavy back so they won’t bend, and heavy acid-free paper that archives well. Each page’s preprinted layout emulates the classic Cornell note-taking style, though it is missing the summary box. I’ve reviewed a number of notebooks and legal pads in this space, and they are almost all very good, but my everyday carry includes one of these in my briefcase and one on my desk because they are simply outstanding artifacts of useful design. Price: $36 for five. Level up: Add Levenger’s leather freeleaf leather pad backer for $90.
A Fountain Pen is a Perfect Gift — 8 Options for Any Budget
Fountain pens are kind of my jam, so, of course, I’m recommending more reasonable options. It doesn’t matter if you’re getting one for your nephew who just got accepted into Princeton or your niece who made partner. A nice pen is a really, really good gift. To the new collegiate, it implies a future of beautifully written words full of sincerity and promise. It is a token of maturity — you’re not gonna doodle emojis with this instrument. To the new partner, it signifies a milestone. It is a badge of experience and an emblem of new status. It is the perfect attorney gift.
The following represents a selection of pens Analog Attorney has written about over the past few years, from affordable everyday options to holy cow.
The Pilot Metropolitan
Japanese mega stationer Pilot introduced this workhorse pen in 2012. As much as I love expensive collectible fountain pens, I don’t carry any of them around with me. I carry a Pilot. Fountain pens are touchy and for the newbie scribbler, poor pen usage can lead to stained fingers, stained pockets, and generally ink everywhere. Worse, if you buy a $300 fountain pen and lose it, you might start crying, which doesn’t play well in a meeting. Lose a Pilot fountain and you’ll be irritated but only out $20.
We’ve discussed Pilot’s brilliant introductory pen in past posts. The Metropolitan is a perfect pen. Every aspect, from its balance to the nib to the very heft of this writing instrument is flawless. Pilot could easily ask for more than a Jackson for them, but somehow they keep this pen in the easily affordable range. Yet, because of its design and craftsmanship, it remains an elegant gift. The fountain pen newbie will be rendered speechless. Hopefully, they can scribble a shaky, emotional “thank you” on a piece of paper.
You can get one from the Goulet Pen store and support small businesses, or you can succumb to the borg and get one from Amazon. Price: $18 to $28, depending on finish.
Waterman Hemisphere Deluxe Fountain Pen
This beautiful pen is the next level for the enthusiast. It’s a great gift for a new partner, or for that person in your circle who just accomplished something worthy. Where the Metropolitan is a stripped-down perfect representation of a fountain pen, the Waterman Hemisphere Deluxe exhibits sophistication. It comes in several finishes as shown above, including one trimmed in chrome and gold. No one needs this adornment. It doesn’t affect the writing experience. But it definitely enhances the pointless luxury experience, which is what such a gift should do. Price: $80.
Pilot Vanishing Point With a Gold Nib
It’s hard to describe the difference between a regular nib (usually stainless steel) and this pen’s black-coated gold point. There’s a lushness to the way it lays ink on the paper, to the way it presses into the surface, and its flex. The Vanishing Point’s already a masterpiece of a fountain pen (my everyday carry for four years running), but the gold nib pops it up to a new level of fountain penmanship. Price: $168 upwards to $400, depending on finish.
The Lamy 2000 With a Gold Nib
Lamy’s been manufacturing their German fountain pens since 1966 and they are perfect. German students receive a Lamy fountain pen in second grade and use it every day until they eventually get a license. A license. Lamy pens are iconic and the 2000 is their flagship instrument. It’s been in continuous production for more than 50 years. It uses piston filling, has a fiberglass and brushed aluminum barrel, and a gold nib. It isn’t the most expensive pen out there, but it is a legend. Price: $219 from Pen Chalet.
The Steam Writer
A luthier by trade, Spencer Hamann spends his days in his workshop creating timeless and bespoke masterpieces from exotic materials and restoring fine instruments and antique tools. He also makes really, really gorgeous pens. Full disclosure, I know Harmann in real life, and let me tell you, this man is obsessed with antique tools. I can tell you his pens were turned using a 1946 Logan machine lathe he bought from a retired airplane mechanic, and on his grandfather’s Austrian Unimat lathe from the 1970s. His craftsmanship is the kind of old-world ‘I’ve never even seen a cellphone’ meticulous zen millimeter-by-millimeter work we all dream about in our handcrafted fountain pens.
Visconti Opera Master Polynesia ($973)
In the same way, the Vanishing Point takes the fountain pen enthusiast to the middle-ground of price points, the Visconti Opera Master series takes them to the first level of holy crap, seriously? price points. The Opera Masters are hand-milled in Florence by (I’m guessing here) time-traveling Italian craftsmen trained by Michelangelo. It’s hand polished inside and out, has a double reservoir system, a hook safe lock, a white gold nib and … just look at it. It looks like the ocean in Seychelles. As a proud owner of a luxury Visconti, I can tell you the writing experience is as deeply gratifying as the design. These are world-class pens — collectibles — and will knock a pen freak to their knees in gratitude. Price: $995 at the Fountain Pen Hospital.
Sailor Kirikane Fountain Pen
Now we’re talking corporate gifts for name partners, and Sailor’s Kirikane fills that slot perfectly. It’s more than a pen; it is a literal work of art. Kirikane is a technique developed for decorating Buddhist statues and artifacts. Each pen is handcrafted by Kasen Otsuka, a venerated Japanese Kirikane artist. No two are the same, and each one embodies this centuries-old art form in a gift that cannot be duplicated. Such a gift speaks to remarkable skill and craftsmanship but, above all, to a status in one’s profession that is unimpeachable. Giving a Sailor Kirikame recognizes a partner’s immeasurable value in the firm and the profession. Price: $2,200 at Goulet Pens.
Bonus “We Won the Lottery” Peggy Guggenheim Fountain Pen
I just want to point out, right here at the top, that when you buy a Mont Blanc Peggy Guggenheim Pen, shipping is complimentary. So, savings. This pen is designed with art deco elements drawn from the collection at the famous Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art in Venice, Italy. It has a strong Art Deco symmetry in the straight barrel and the decoration. The cap ring is decorated with lions emblematic of Guggenheim’s estate, and if you look closely at the nib, it has paw prints reminiscent of those from Guggenheim’s 14 Lhasa Apsos, to which she was devoted.
The pattern on the barrel is rendered in a rare transitional metal, Ruthenium. The metal elements and the nib are all rose gold. The familiar Mont Blanc emblem on the cap is made from white marble. This pen is deeply luxurious, rare, and way over the top. Price: $10,300.
The Ideal Desk Pad and Sticky Notes
In the daily life of scribbling analogs, jotting is serious business. A notebook is vital on the go, but at your desk, its efficacy is eclipsed by a blotter pad. Think of it as an open-faced notebook. Where the notepad has two, maybe three steps to recording a thought, the desk pad has zilch. It’s already there, already open, waiting for you to scrawl “Anne needs the dep!” or “Court at 3?” But the great, wide classic calendar blotter is overkill — and no fun. A better bet is Baron Fig’s Mastermind, a truly utile pad with a dot grid matrix and archival-quality paper. For the obsessive sticky-noter and blotter jottist, there is no better gift. Unless you pair the Mastermind with some serious sticky notes.
Price: $16 for the standard size (12″x8″), $8 for the mini (6″x8″).
Sticky notes are a thing. You use them. Your entire office uses them. Future archeologists will use them to label the boxes and boxes of Post-it notes they will unearth when they discover our ancient office supply stores. But the arduous effort of writing on them, the strain of being legible, oh, the horror of writing your ninth draft of “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE USED YOGURT CUPS IN THE MICROWAVE (STEVE).” Well, not anymore. With the Cubinote, you can print perfectly crafted custom sticky notes from your desk or your phone. And just look at it!
Price: $150 for the printer, and $11 for the paper.
Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner
Balancing your job and your life can seem like a distant fantasy for many attorneys. Maybe most attorneys. Your job requires laserlike focus sustained for days, sometimes weeks, as you grind through a case. Finding time to do all those things you want to do and see those people who live in your house who look vaguely like you in miniature (who are they?) is tough. Finding time to sleep is nearly impossible. Unless you draw a line in the Berber and tell your work, you shall not pass! Carving out personal time is the only way you’ll ever have any. Using Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner makes that a lot easier. It is a comprehensive, science-based, experience-based tool for busy professionals to give their life order and balance. I used one for much of this year and was most impressed by the importance this planner places on sleep.
Price: $125 for the Classic (annual subscription). Budget alternative: Leuchtturm 1917 Daily Planner for 2020, $19.95. Check Attorney at Work’s “Ultimate Gift Guide for Lawyers” for more journal options.
Spencer Handwriting Workbook
Sure, it takes longer to write “Get me those briefs now or I will kill you” on a sticky note than it does to type them into your computer — but there is value in that time. Writing in cursive engages more of your executive mind than typing. You can’t write without looking at the words you’re laying down, and you have to make a lot of microdecisions as you go about shape and clarity and word choice. Beautiful penmanship is merely icing on the cake of writing by hand: Practicing and mastering this skill not only rewards you with a gorgeous script, the actual practice — which you can perform in these incredible Spencerian Method Handwriting Manuals — delivers the same reward as meditation.
Book Darts: The Most Analog Gift Ever
Some analog tools send me over the brink of nerdsmanship and into the abyss of pure analog joy. Book darts are at least three of them. I first learned about book darts when I was but a boy, reading high-falutin’ literature and taking notes. Someone gave me a little round tin of paper-thin brass clips to mark my pages and I’ve had a tin of them in my briefcase ever since. Some of my books have so many book darts they weigh 3 pounds. If you’re new to the club, book darts are small brass clips that slide onto a page, providing the merest sliver of a metallic marker on the edge of a book so you can find that awesome passage that really knocked you out. And you don’t have to use them for books. Pull them a little bit out from the page of a brief so they act as classy signature markers. Price: $15.95 for a tin of 100 from Book Darts.
The Obstacle Is the Way
I am a fan of Stoicism. I practice it daily to the chagrin of my neighbors, who are constantly asking why I’m in the yard wearing a toga. It’s a useful daily philosophy easily nutshelled by Ryan Holiday’s bestselling title, “The Obstacle Is the Way,” and an emerging trendy mindset, which is funny since it’s more than 2,000 years old. Marcus Aurelius, Zeno of Citium, Seneca and Epictetus were Stoics, as are Bill Clinton, Anna Kendricks and T-Pain. The philosophy seems ready-made for busy professionals who are highly competitive, the kind of people who meet their challenges teeth first. I’m not one of those people. I’m a wishy and rather washy book nerd and the only thing I meet teeth first is a sandwich. Yet I find enormous comfort and strength in Stoicism. It manages to keep me grounded and as humble as I’ll ever be. Stoicism has taught me to treat adversities as fortunate lessons.
Price: Between $12 and $15 (used) at Alibris or about $18 new on Amazon.
Attorney at Work’s Analog gift guide is updated annually.
More Gift Guidance from Attorney at Work
You’ll find gift ideas for analog attorneys in our hand-picked ultimate gift guide for lawyers, and gifts for the new law school graduate in this guide, both updated annually. Check the Attorney at Work bookstore as well for updated ideas, including a wearables section.
Note that neither the author nor the publishers receive compensation for recommending these items. In some instances, when you use a retail link to purchase something, Attorney at Work may earn a small affiliate commission.
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