The 2022 Lawyer and Paraprofessional Gift Guide
November 19, 2022
Our “Lucky” 7 Suggestions for an inspiring holiday season and new year
Welcome to our 5th annual Hire an Esquire Lawyer Gift Guide! Looking ahead for gifts that would help your favorite lawyer or paraprofessional in 2023, it was fun to put together a gift guide that was not pandemic oriented.
As usual, we’ve kept the unique concerns of all associated with a legal profession in mind when building this list; still there’s a universality to these gifts. Read on to find some inspiration for anyone and everyone on your list and maybe even yourself...
1. The Gift: Rocket Notebook
The Present: Traveling (into the digital age) without Moving
Price: $20-$37 depending on size and model
Is your intended gift recipient a stereotypical legal industry luddite or just someone who finds the art and exercise of handwriting better for developing their thoughts than typing? Either way, the Rocket Notebook may be the solution to bridge the digital divide and better organize handwritten notes without all of the paper.
Rocket Notebooks contain multi-page wipeable/ reusable pages that work in conjunction with the (free) Rocketbook App. The app allows you to easily capture handwritten pages and beam them to your preferred cloud storage tool and receives the most enthusiastic reviews for how easy it makes organizing and searching your handwritten notes. And, as one reviewer noted, using this notebook is unobtrusive and helps to build a better connection with clients and colleagues than with a tablet or computer where they may perceive that you are (or you may actually be) distracted by headlines, messages, and alerts.
2. The Gift: Eins Zwei Zero Riesling or Luminara Red Blend
The Present: Non-Alcoholic Wine, Sober Curious Exploration
Price: $20-$22 + Shipping
The holidays mean that dry January is upon us... And more people, whether after dry January or for other reasons, are reducing or eliminating their alcohol consumption—with Gen Z and Millennials leading the way. And, as discussed last year when our gift guide featured non-alcoholic mixers, alcoholism is a particularly acute challenge to those in the legal profession.
While with all non-alcoholic wine, expectations must be set—we are still far from approaching connoisseur level wines— last year, we were unable to find wines that made the cut to feature with our mixer recommendations. There is a lot of really bad non-alcoholic wine on the market. To be fair, non-alcoholic mixers have a much less defined mold to emulate. Still, this year we have found 2 solid non-alcoholic wine recommendations to gift to those who are sober curious or who may want to experience the ritual of wine during the holidays (without the fog). The Eins Zwei Zero Riesling contains the crisp and light, yet fermented taste of an alcoholic sparkling white while the Luminara Red Blend is consistently rated as the top non-alcoholic red.
3. The Gift: Celluma Home
The Present: Rejuvenation (of skin, body, and mitochondria, muscle and athletic recovery)
Price: $695
If your intended recipient is a skincare aficionado, a fitness enthusiast, or someone who has a lawyer's typical occupational back and neck issues from too much stress and time at a desk— red light therapy may be a great gift.
Red light therapy was studied and used by NASA for cellular rejuvenation — which like many government projects and funding spearheaded commercial and medical use. Current research shows this therapy works by energizing the cell’s powerhouse, the mitochondria. Now red light therapy is used by athletes and physical therapists as well as at med spas for skin anti-aging and rejuvenation. This treatment is also undergoing further studies for neurological and other medical use cases. And now red light has become accessible to use at home.
We like the FDA-cleared Celluma Home for its (relative) affordability, portability, and dual modes that provides the shorter wavelength frequencies for skin treatment as well as the deeper frequencies showed to be most effective treating aches, pains, and for physical recovery (whether from the gym or being hunched over a computer for too many hours). Celluma is also a popular choice at med spas so you may recognize the brand from professional treatments. Joov also offers red light therapy in wall panels for a more full body treatment if you’re willing to make a bigger financial and space investment in red light treatment and portability isn’t a key feature.
4. The Gift: Nest WiFi Pro (Mesh network) +/- Ikea Bekant Sitting/Standing Desk
The Present: An Elevated Hybrid Office Experience (with less back pain and awkward video conference bandwidth lags)
The Price: $199-$399 (Nest WiFi Pro); Desk $279 - $579 (Bekant Desk)
Remote or at least hybrid remote work is likely here to stay so if your intended recipient hasn’t already invested in a good from work from home set up (or is just complaining about back pain or video lags) this might be a good choice.
IKEA Standing Desk: If we had a nickel for every time we heard that “sitting is the new smoking”, we’d have enough money to buy this desk. Affordable and adjustable you can now have an adjustable sitting/standing desk at home without forking out thousands. It comes in a variety of colors and sizes and for a little more money you can also get a motorized version.
Nest WiFi Pro: Hassle-free, whole-home wifi at the speed of a wired connection. Perfect lag-free video calls for when you are working at home and glitch-free streaming for when you need a break. Google’s newly released Nest Wi-fi Pro will cover the largest homes (expand the reach as far as you want with additional base stations) and can be set up with the press of a button. The new model supports speeds up to 5Gbps with the new WiFi 6E standard. Pricing (above) varies based on how many base stations you need.
5. The Gift: Legos (oriented towards grown-ups)
The Present: A Non-Screen Creative Outlet
The Price: $39.99-$129.99 (varies)
Know someone who is always playing with your/ their kids legos or who just desperately always needs to be building or doing something? Adult LEGOs are a fun and playful way to scratch that itch. Check out their travel-related sets for indulging some wanderlust when a vacation is far away or not possible for the time being.
6. The Gift: Oura Ring
The Present: Self-Care Support
Price: $299-$599 for ring; $5.99/month subscription fee
We first recommended the Oura Ring as a splurge gift way back in our first ever Lawyer Gift Guide in 2018 (well before they showed up on everyone’s fingers including NBA players to Olympic skiers). With the Oura Ring now on version 3 with even deeper insights, we thought it was worth revisiting four years later. Overall (both past and current generations) Oura helps you to fine-tune your lifestyle by noticing what impacts your sleep cycle and overall “readiness” (heart rate and body temperature which fluctuate with stress, fatigue, and illness). It is all around unobtrusive in both the design of the hardware (and lack of updates, emails á la the Apple Watch) and the app— which shows your data in a simple and actionable manner with gentle guidance and nudges to help you identify what does and doesn’t support your well-being.
Updated features in Gen 3 include deeper sleep insights, daytime and workout heart rate, blood oxygen level sensing and more in depth temperature sensors that help to predict illness (before symptoms) and menstrual cycles.
7. The Gift: Indie Magazines
The Present: Slow Reading
Price: Varies
If the lawyer in your life needs a break from “fast news” and click-bait headlines, consider getting them a subscription to one of the numerous indie magazines. These magazines that tend to feel like a hybrid between a magazine and a book are generally produced a few times a year, with in-depth stories and photography that are a joy to read. Consider picks like Cereal for the traveler and adventurer, Disegno for the design and architecture enthusiast and Gentlewoman for your favorite feminist.
Want more inspiration?
Check out our previous year’s lawyer and legal paraprofessional gift guides: