Need a gift for the lawyer in your life this holiday season? If you’re looking for something special for your coworker, friend, or family member in the legal sector, we’ve got you covered.
We’ve put together a list of the best gifts for lawyers, and we’ve updated it with some fresh ideas for 2018. These gifts will help lawyers manage their busy lifestyles, improve their productivity, or simply unwind.
We’ve even included one classic gift that you simply need to get for your fellow lawyers (if they don’t own it already).
The end of the year can be a busy time for legal professionals, but that doesn’t mean you need to default to a box of chocolates or a gift certificate. Get the lawyer in your life something interesting—or at least something they’ll actually use.
Here are a few gift ideas to help you shop for your favorite lawyer this December:
1. Instant Pot
Lawyers often have to deal with long days and late nights and, foodie or not, cooking might be the last thing on their mind when they get home. But, they still need to find a way to eat healthy and keep a balanced diet.
Instant Pot to the rescue! It’s a programmable electric pressure cooker that monitors and adjusts cooking temperatures and times depending on the volume of food being cooked. You can cook meals in a flash, or program the pot to cook later. Home late? The Instant Pot will keep your food warm for up to 10 hours.
This year, Instant Pot released the Instant Pot Ultra as well, which is even capable of making cake!
It might just be a lawyer’s new best friend.
Instant Pot and Instant Pot Ultra on Amazon
Price: $110-$160 depending on pot size
Alternative idea: If you’re buying for a lawyer with a penchant for planning ahead, a slow cooker is also a good option.
2. Meal prep service subscription
If you know a lawyer who likes cooking but hates shopping, a subscription to a meal prep service might be the perfect gift. Services like Blue Apron deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and tantalizing recipes—right to your door. That means you can cook Chicken Khao Soi without an 8 p.m. trip to the grocery store to pick up limes and curry powder.
Blue Apron delivers your groceries in refrigerated boxes, so busy lawyers don’t need to be home to receive them. Also, the company supports sustainable food systems, so your gift recipient can feel good about what they’re eating.
Price: $59.94 per week for couples, $143.84 per week for a family of four.
3. Lawsuit—the board game
We promised a classic, and here it is! Lawsuit is a board game that was created by two parents who wanted to teach their children about the legal profession. Since then, the game has grown in popularity, and we’re reasonably confident that any legal professional would love to play it.
Consider: The Lawsuit website boasts that you can “Run your own law office and be a master of the courtroom all while moving around the game board!” Amazing! Read more about the rules here.
Price: $34.95
4. Favorite mug
This one might seem boring, but hear us out—everyone has a favorite mug, and you could be the person who buys your fellow lawyer that mug!
What’s more, there are some seriously cool mugs out there. Just check out the Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug. Fill it with hot water, and watch the text disappear!
Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug
Price: $15.95
5. Foam gavel
What better way is there to relieve stress than with a foam gavel? Help the lawyer in your life hammer out their stress and bring order to their mind.
Price: $10.29
6. Noise cancelling headphones
For anyone who needs to concentrate for extended periods of time, noise cancelling headphones can make all the difference. They don’t block out all noise, but they definitely dampen distraction, and for a lawyer trying to concentrate on writing long form documents, they might just be a godsend.
There are plenty of options available, so you could choose a basic set of noise cancelling headphones or something more high-end.
Sony noise cancelling headphones on Amazon
Price: $69
Bose noise cancelling headphones on Amazon
Price: $349
7. Nest thermostat
The last thing a busy lawyer thinks about is the temperature of their home. But for those in colder climates, coming home to a toasty house after a long day of work would be much better than coming home to a frosty one.
The Nest thermostat learns your schedule and the temperatures you like, and then turns itself off to save energy when no one is home. That means you’ll give the busy lawyer in your life one less thing to worry about.
Price: $247.98
8. Cross cut paper shredder
When lawyers dispose of client documents, they can’t just throw them in the recycling bin. Confidential information must be kept confidential, so these documents need to be shredded.
If the lawyer in your life is just starting a solo firm, a cross-cut paper shredder could be the perfect gift.
Price: $60-$1,100
9. ScanSnap scanner
More and more lawyers are going paperless, but they’ll still need a way to bring paper documents into the digital world. A portable ScanSnap scanner is the answer!
Weighing in at just 14.1 ounces, the ScanSnap is ideal for lawyers on the go. It is battery powered, and scans documents wirelessly to PC, Mac, Kindle Fire, and iOS or Android devices. The best part? The scanner integrates directly with Clio and creates searchable PDF documents with the touch of a button—a key feature for lawyers who need to search through hundreds of pages of documents.
Fujitsu ScanSnap iX100 Wireless Mobile Scanner on Amazon
Price: $229
10. 2-in-1 portable battery / charger
For the lawyer on the go, a 2-in-1 portable battery that is also a device charger will definitely be a welcome gift. This type of charger charges both your device and itself when plugged into a wall. Never get stuck with a dead battery again!
Anker PowerCore Fusion 5000 2-in-1 Portable Charger on Amazon
Price: $25.99
11. Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat
When it comes to the kitchen, what’s more comforting than comfort foods?
Get Chrissy Teigen’s first cookbook featuring her favorite comfort foods recipes for the lawyer that wants to kickback and relax with something delicious. Based on reviews, the recipes are easy-to-follow and cover a variety of different cuisines. For example, you can find dishes like Dutch Baby Pancake and Skillet-Charred Fish Taco.
Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat
Price: $13.91
12. Yoga mat
A little work life balance can make all the difference in a lawyer’s life. That’s certainly been true for Clio customer Patrick Palace.
Buy a lawyer a yoga mat, and they’ll be one step closer to meditating, doing sunrise salutations, or any number of other practices to keep themselves healthy and focused.
Price: $27.99
13. Dance class
Why go to the gym when you can dance? Dancing isn’t just fun—it keeps you healthy, and it also improves brain function. Indeed, Chris Trebatoski has grown his solo firm while simultaneously starting a competitive salsa dancing career with his wife Inna.
Sign the lawyer in your life up for a dance class, and who knows where it may take them.
Price: Varies based on location
14. Boxing class
If your gift recipient isn’t that into dancing, there are plenty of other activities they might enjoy. Take boxing, for example.
Boxing helps Shuaib Ahmed of ASA Law Group stay balanced and at the top of his game. Buy a class for a lawyer, and you just might help them relieve some stress while getting their heart rate up.
Price: Varies based on location.
15. Echo or Echo Dot
Voice-controlled devices can do a lot to make one’s life easier. If the lawyer you need to buy for is a Clio user, consider that they can use Tali with any Amazon Alexa-enabled device to log their billable time with simple voice commands!
That said, make sure lawyers take precautions to protect client confidentiality if they’re using a live-mic listening device. Keep it in your office, but not in a meeting space or boardroom, for example.
Price: $29.99 – $99.99
16. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
Here at Clio, Radical Candor™ is a big part of our company culture.
Among many of the principles discussed in Radical Candor, we believe that timely, honest feedback is key to shaping a successful working environment. Kim Scott pulls from past experiences in her positions at Google and Apple, telling funny, painful, and embarrassing stories that are delightful but constructive.
For the legal professional that’s fresh out of school, to the lawyer who’s the boss of their own firm, Radical Candor offers tips on how to build a better workplace for both managers and colleagues.
We hope that the lawyer in your life finds this read as valuable as we do.
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
Price: $15.07
17. An office plant
At Clio, not only are we lucky to be part of a healthy company culture, but we also work in beautiful office space.
And part of that office space is a ton of plants!
Take a tip from us and give the gift of greenery. Plants are a good way to liven up any office—including your lawyer’s. At Clio’s Burnaby location, we’re happy to host several fiddle leaf figs, succulents, snake plants, and money trees.
Price: Varies.
18. Espresso Machine
For law firms, as with any business, it’s the little things than contribute to a great client experience. It’s becoming more and more important for law firms to take a client-centered approach to stay competitive.
What better way to help than by gifting the lawyer in your life an espresso machine for their office or lobby? Help them make a great first impression on new clients with top-notch espresso.
Price: Varies.