For several years, Reid Trautz has been publishing his annual guide to holiday gifts coveted by lawyers — just in time to inspire families and friends of lawyers to choose just the right thing. Nothing trite. Nothing cliche. Just lots of specific ideas for those hard-to-please attorneys! You can see the complete Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers posted on ReidMyBlog.com, but here are five of his favorites.
1. The lawyer in your life need not be an art collector to enjoy new art for the office. Artwork can brighten the office of any lawyer, and nothing is quite so unique as a work of art created by, well, another lawyer. Lawyer-turned-artist, to be exact. Sometimes the artwork of a lawyer-artist reflects the law, such as the work of Deborah Wolfe, and sometimes it has nothing to do with the law, such as the paintings of Kirk Hayes, the photography of Ian Plant or the pottery of Debbi Cohen. Some lawyer-artists, like Betsy Karasik, accept commissioned work, including portraits. Prices range from reasonable to “How much per hour?”
2. Contrary to the usual advice to “leave your work at the office,” Lawsuit! is a clever board game for sharing the life of a lawyer with family and friends. Players graduate law school and then “practice” law by accepting clients, and then settling or appealing cases. An award-winning game for home or the classroom.
3. Maybe the hardest practitioner to buy for is one who’s also a tech-loving outdoorsman who loves to camp, hike and ski in the wilderness. How does that lawyer power her iPhone or iPad? Worry no more, thanks to the Brunton Hydrogen Reactor — a small, 8-ounce device that uses hydrogen power cores to combine with oxygen to create power that can recharge an iPhone six times before the power core itself needs recharging.
4. Lawyers and iPads go together like peanut butter and jelly, beer and pretzels, and Santa and reindeer! With so many iPads, how can one lawyer’s be distinguished from another’s? Give it a unique case! The Bison Leather iPad Brief adds needed protection and a stylish home for your recipient’s tablet. Constructed of rugged bison leather (you were expecting reindeer leather?) with solid brass hardware, this case accommodates documents and small personal items in addition to the iPad.
5. What would a lawyer gift guide be without a few ideas that involve some holiday “spirits”? Leading the way is the limited edition Death’s Door Gin, created by craft distiller Death’s Door Spirits from grain that is organically grown on tiny Washington Island, located where the rough waters of Lake Michigan meet Lake Superior. A great story and great spirits!
As delicious as that is, your lawyer might want to learn to distill his or her own whiskey. Guide to Urban Moonshining is a delightful book with information and a history of whiskey, with instructions to safely try your hand at in-house hooch.
The last “spirit” is not one you drink but one you drink in. Hylnds Spirit of the Glen from Barneys New York is a unisex eau de parfum by D.S. & Durga in collaboration with The Glenlivet that “captures the history and flora” of Speyside, Scotland — nature’s home to some of the finest Scotch whiskies in the world.
Oh, buying gifts for a lawyer can be frightful,
This guide tries to make it more delightful;
For lawyers’ families it’s the place to go,
No more woes, no more woes, no more woes!
Read the latest year’s full Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers on ReidMyBlog.com (past editions have great ideas too!)
Illustration ©iStockPhoto.com
