Shopping for items for the analog-leaning legal professional in your life would possibly seem to be an inconceivable job. In a digital-forward gadget universe, discovering one thing cool that doesn’t want batteries or a software program replace is form of maddening. Get one in every of these items in your retro-tech pals they usually’ll say thanks for such a remarkably considerate current. Most likely with a handwritten card in good cursive.
Finest Pencil Sharpener within the World …
You don’t usually consider a pencil sharpener as a luxurious present however I guarantee you, handing your favourite analog legal professional a Mobius & Ruppert Pollux will make them cry. The Pollux is the very best hand-held pencil sharpener on the planet. As an alternative of a completely conical level, the Pollux shaves a slight curvature into the tip of your pencil so it’s simply barely concave. This offers an extended level so you possibly can write extra between sharpenings. Different sharpeners do the identical factor however the 18.5-degree curve of the Pollux is certainly superior. Stable brass German craftsmanship. Heavy. Will survive a nuclear blast. Worth: $35 on Amazon.
And the Finest Pencil within the World
The Blackwing 602 is arguably essentially the most well-known pencil in pencildom. John Steinbeck burned by means of 60 a day. Chuck Jones drew Bugs Bunny with a 602. Quincy Jones composed with them. A classic 602 can go for over $100 on eBay, however you may get one for much less. Palamino Pencils resurrected the Blackwing with obsessive (and poetic) consideration to element in craftsmanship and lead composition. They aren’t low-cost: A set of 12 runs round $28, however they’re value each penny and are available in black, grey and pearly white. Go together with the starter set, with steel caps and the patented Blackwing two-stage sharpener. Worth: $27 on Blackwing, additionally on Amazon for barely extra.
The Excellent Notepad
I searched a very long time for the right authorized pad and these sensible yellow pads from Levenger are among the many best. Designed for busy, organized professionals who recognize high quality, they characterize all the very best design somebody may discover in a authorized pad: perforated pages, quarter-inch dominated strains in grey in order that they’re straightforward on the eyes, a stiff heavy again in order that they gained’t bend, and heavy acid-free paper that archives properly. Every web page’s preprinted structure emulates the traditional Cornell note-taking type, although it’s lacking the abstract field. I’ve reviewed a lot of notebooks and authorized pads on this house, and they’re nearly all superb, however my on a regular basis carry consists of one in every of these in my briefcase and one on my desk as a result of they’re merely excellent artifacts of helpful design. Worth: $36 for 5. Degree up: Add Levenger’s leather-based freeleaf leather-based pad backer for $90.
A Fountain Pen is a Excellent Present — for Any Finances
Fountain pens are form of my jam, so, after all, I’m recommending one as an analog present. A extremely good present. It doesn’t matter should you’re getting one in your nephew who simply acquired accepted into Princeton or your niece who made companion. A pleasant pen works. To the brand new collegiate, it implies a way forward for superbly written phrases stuffed with sincerity and promise. It’s a token of maturity — you’re not gonna doodle emojis with this instrument. To the brand new companion, it signifies a milestone. It’s a badge of expertise and an emblem of recent standing. It’s the good legal professional present.
The next represents a collection of pens Analog Lawyer has written about over the previous few years, from reasonably priced on a regular basis choices to holy cow.
The Pilot Metropolitan
Japanese mega stationer Pilot launched this workhorse pen in 2012. As a lot as I like costly collectible fountain pens, I don’t carry any of them round with me. I carry a Pilot. Fountain pens are sensitive and for the beginner scribbler, poor pen utilization can result in stained fingers, stained pockets, and customarily ink all over the place. Worse, should you purchase a $300 fountain pen and lose it, you would possibly begin crying, which doesn’t play properly in a gathering. Lose a Pilot fountain and also you’ll be irritated however solely out $20.
We’ve mentioned Pilot’s sensible introductory pen in previous posts. The Metropolitan is an ideal pen. Each facet, from its stability to the nib to the very heft of this writing instrument is flawless. Pilot may simply ask for greater than a Jackson for them, however by some means they hold this pen within the simply reasonably priced vary. But, due to its design and craftsmanship, it stays a sublime present. The fountain pen beginner will likely be rendered speechless. Hopefully, they will scribble a shaky, emotional “thanks” on a chunk of paper.
You may get one from the Goulet Pen retailer and help small companies, or you possibly can succumb to the borg and get one from Amazon. Worth: $18 to $28, relying on end.
Waterman Hemisphere Deluxe Fountain Pen
This stunning pen is the subsequent degree for the fanatic. It’s an awesome present for a brand new companion, or for that individual in your circle who simply completed one thing worthy. The place the Metropolitan is a stripped-down good illustration of a fountain pen, the Waterman Hemisphere Deluxe displays sophistication. It is available in a number of finishes as proven above, together with one trimmed in chrome and gold. Nobody wants this adornment. It doesn’t have an effect on the writing expertise. However it positively enhances the pointless luxurious expertise, which is what such a present ought to do. Worth: $80.
Pilot Vanishing Level With a Gold Nib
It’s arduous to explain the distinction between a daily nib (normally stainless-steel) and this pen’s black-coated gold level. There’s a lushness to the best way it lays ink on the paper, to the best way it presses into the floor, and its flex. The Vanishing Level’s already a masterpiece of a fountain pen (my on a regular basis carry for 4 years working), however the gold nib pops it as much as a brand new degree of fountain penmanship. Worth: $168 upwards to $400, relying on end.
The Lamy 2000 With a Gold Nib
Lamy’s been manufacturing their German fountain pens since 1966 and they’re good. German college students obtain a Lamy fountain pen in second grade and use it each day till they finally get a license. A license. Lamy pens are iconic and the 2000 is their flagship instrument. It’s been in steady manufacturing for greater than 50 years. It makes use of piston filling, has a fiberglass and brushed aluminum barrel, and a gold nib. It isn’t the most costly pen on the market, however it’s a legend. Worth: $219 from Pen Chalet.
The Steam Author
A luthier by commerce, Spencer Hamann spends his days in his workshop creating timeless and bespoke masterpieces from unique supplies and restoring tremendous devices and vintage instruments. He additionally makes actually, actually attractive pens. Full disclosure, I do know Harmann in actual life, and let me inform you, this man is obsessive about vintage instruments. I can inform you his pens had been turned utilizing a 1946 Logan machine lathe he purchased from a retired airplane mechanic, and on his grandfather’s Austrian Unimat lathe from the Nineteen Seventies. His craftsmanship is the form of old-world ‘I’ve by no means even seen a cellphone’ meticulous zen millimeter-by-millimeter work all of us dream about in our handcrafted fountain pens.
Visconti Opera Grasp Polynesia ($973)
In the identical means, the Vanishing Level takes the fountain pen fanatic to the middle-ground of value factors, the Visconti Opera Grasp collection takes them to the primary degree of holy crap, critically? value factors. The Opera Masters are hand-milled in Florence by (I’m guessing right here) time-traveling Italian craftsmen educated by Michelangelo. It’s hand polished in and out, has a double reservoir system, a hook protected lock, a white gold nib and … simply take a look at it. It seems just like the ocean in Seychelles. As a proud proprietor of a luxurious Visconti, I can inform you the writing expertise is as deeply gratifying because the design. These are world-class pens — collectibles — and can knock a pen freak to their knees in gratitude. Worth: $995 on the Fountain Pen Hospital.
Sailor Kirikane Fountain Pen
Now we’re speaking company items for title companions, and Sailor’s Kirikane fills that slot completely. It’s greater than a pen; it’s a literal murals. Kirikane is a method developed for adorning Buddhist statues and artifacts. Every pen is hand made by Kasen Otsuka, a honored Japanese Kirikane artist. No two are the identical, and each embodies this centuries-old artwork type in a present that can’t be duplicated. Such a present speaks to exceptional talent and craftsmanship however, above all, to a standing in a single’s career that’s unimpeachable. Giving a Sailor Kirikame acknowledges a companion’s immeasurable worth within the agency and the career. Worth: $2,200 at Goulet Pens.
Bonus “We Gained the Lottery” Peggy Guggenheim Fountain Pen
I simply wish to level out, proper right here on the prime, that if you purchase a Mont Blanc Peggy Guggenheim Pen, transport is complimentary. So, financial savings. This pen is designed with artwork deco parts drawn from the gathering on the well-known Guggenheim Museum of Trendy Artwork in Venice, Italy. It has a robust Artwork Deco symmetry within the straight barrel and the ornament. The cap ring is adorned with lions emblematic of Guggenheim’s property, and should you look carefully on the nib, it has paw prints paying homage to these from Guggenheim’s 14 Lhasa Apsos, to which she was devoted.
The sample on the barrel is rendered in a uncommon transitional steel, Ruthenium. The steel parts and the nib are all rose gold. The acquainted Mont Blanc emblem on the cap is constructed from white marble. This pen is deeply luxurious, uncommon, and means excessive. Worth: $10,300.
The Ultimate Desk Pad and Sticky Notes
Within the every day lifetime of scribbling analogs, jotting is critical enterprise. A pocket book is important on the go, however at your desk, its efficacy is eclipsed by a blotter pad. Consider it as an open-faced pocket book. The place the notepad has two, possibly three steps to recording a thought, the desk pad has zilch. It’s already there, already open, ready so that you can scrawl “Anne wants the dep!” or “Court docket at 3?” However the nice, extensive traditional calendar blotter is overkill — and no enjoyable. A greater wager is Baron Fig’s Mastermind, a very utile pad with a dot grid matrix and archival-quality paper. For the obsessive sticky-noter and blotter jottist, there is no such thing as a higher present. Except you pair the Mastermind with some critical sticky notes.
Worth: $16 for the usual measurement (12″x8″), $8 for the mini (6″x8″).
Sticky notes are a factor. You utilize them. Your complete workplace makes use of them. Future archeologists will use them to label the containers and containers of Publish-it notes they are going to unearth once they uncover our historical workplace provide shops. However the arduous effort of writing on them, the pressure of being legible, oh, the horror of writing your ninth draft of “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE USED YOGURT CUPS IN THE MICROWAVE (STEVE).” Nicely, not anymore. With the Cubinote, you possibly can print completely crafted customized sticky notes out of your desk or your telephone. And simply take a look at it!
Worth: $150 for the printer, and $11 for the paper.
Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner
Balancing your job and your life can seem to be a distant fantasy for a lot of attorneys. Possibly most attorneys. Your job requires laserlike focus sustained for days, generally weeks, as you grind by means of a case. Discovering time to do all these stuff you wish to do and see these individuals who reside in your home who look vaguely such as you in miniature (who’re they?) is hard. Discovering time to sleep is sort of inconceivable. Except you draw a line within the Berber and inform your work, you shall not go! Carving out private time is the one means you’ll ever have any. Utilizing Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner makes that lots simpler. It’s a complete, science-based, experience-based software for busy professionals to present their life order and stability. I used one for a lot of this yr and was most impressed by the significance this planner locations on sleep.
Worth: $125 for the Traditional (annual subscription). Finances various: Leuchtturm 1917 Day by day Planner for 2020, $19.95. Verify Lawyer at Work’s “Final Present Information for Attorneys” for extra journal choices.
Spencer Handwriting Workbook
Positive, it takes longer to jot down “Get me these briefs now or I’ll kill you” on a sticky be aware than it does to sort them into your laptop — however there may be worth in that point. Writing in cursive engages extra of your government thoughts than typing. You may’t write with out trying on the phrases you’re laying down, and you must make quite a lot of microdecisions as you go about form and readability and phrase selection. Lovely penmanship is merely icing on the cake of writing by hand: Training and mastering this talent not solely rewards you with a stunning script, the precise apply — which you’ll be able to carry out in these unbelievable Spencerian Technique Handwriting Manuals — delivers the identical reward as meditation.
Guide Darts: The Most Analog Present Ever
Some analog instruments ship me over the brink of nerdsmanship and into the abyss of pure analog pleasure. Guide darts are a minimum of three of them. I first realized about guide darts once I was however a boy, studying high-falutin’ literature and taking notes. Somebody gave me a bit of spherical tin of paper-thin brass clips to mark my pages and I’ve had a tin of them in my briefcase ever since. A few of my books have so many guide darts they weigh 3 kilos. If you happen to’re new to the membership, guide darts are small brass clips that slide onto a web page, offering the merest sliver of a metallic marker on the sting of a guide so you could find that superior passage that actually knocked you out. And also you don’t have to make use of them for books. Pull them a bit of bit out from the web page of a quick in order that they act as stylish signature markers. Worth: $15.95 for a tin of 100 from Guide Darts.
James Bond’s Umbrella
Lockwood Umbrellas is a kind of old-school startups that noticed an iconic necessity and resurrected it as in the event that they’d gone again in time. These are extremely well-made and handcrafted in accordance with centuries-old methods utilized by grasp umbrellas makers. They’re brilliantly helpful and have superior names, just like the Whangee Telescopic umbrella. (A lot enjoyable to say in a British accent that my spouse is about an inch away from stabbing me within the spleen. With a Whangee Telescopic umbrella.) Though the corporate simply launched in 2014, the standard and craftsmanship of Lockwoods have made them a global staple for individuals who fetishize bowler hats and sartorial spies. They’re the Rolls-Royce of rain safety. However the very best factor concerning the Lockwood Umbrella expertise, in my humble opinion? It’s their web site, which emphasizes their dignity and bespoke snootiness through the use of phrases comparable to manufactory and a web page asking you to signal as much as their publication that sports activities a blurry black-and-white image of this man, who’s ardently well-dressed and simply ferociously, magnificently, London-Bridgedly bored. However he has an umbrella. He’s acquired that umbrella. Worth: $165 from Uncrate. (Except the Lockwood Whangee is again in inventory.)
Finally, a Guide: The Impediment Is the Method
I’m a fan of Stoicism. I apply it every day to the chagrin of my neighbors, who’re always asking why I’m within the yard sporting a toga. It’s a helpful every day philosophy simply nutshelled by Ryan Vacation’s bestselling title, “The Impediment Is the Method,” and an rising fashionable mindset, which is humorous because it’s greater than 2,000 years outdated. Marcus Aurelius, Zeno of Citium, Seneca and Epictetus had been Stoics, as are Invoice Clinton, Anna Kendricks and T-Ache. The philosophy appears ready-made for busy professionals who’re extremely aggressive, the sort of people that meet their challenges enamel first. I’m not a kind of individuals. I’m a wishy and moderately washy guide nerd and the one factor I meet enamel first is a sandwich. But I discover huge consolation and power in Stoicism. It manages to maintain me grounded and as humble as I’ll ever be. Stoicism has taught me to deal with adversities as lucky classes.
Worth: Between $12 and $15 (used) at Alibris or about $18 new on Amazon.
Lawyer at Work’s Analog present information is up to date yearly.
Extra Present Steerage from Lawyer at Work
You’ll discover present concepts for analog attorneys in our hand-picked final present information for legal professionals, and items for the brand new legislation faculty graduate on this information, each up to date yearly. Verify the Lawyer at Work bookstore as properly for up to date concepts, together with a wearables part.
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