Nicole Black, The Daily Record Newswire
Now that Thanksgiving is a thing of the past, you know what that means. It's time to start buying holiday gifts! Here are some ideas for the lawyers in your life.
First, consider the Amazon Echo, Amazon's voice recognition device that was released earlier this year. Echo is an important development in the next stage of voice recognition software, in part because with all of its smart home integrations, it created a bridge between voice recognition software and connected smart home devices. Its ability to interpret voice input is surprisingly good, and its many integrations make it ideal for a law office.
You can ask Echo tell you about your upcoming appointments, add an appointment to your calendar, create a plan for the day and add items to your to-do list. Before you leave the office for court, you can obtain information about traffic, the best routes to take, the weather and more. The possibilities are endless and it will only improve with time, which is why it's such a good choice for lawyers.
Another great gift to consider this year is the Apple Watch. The watch is perfect for busy lawyers since it serves as an unobtrusive, immediate link to truly important information while it simultaneously filters out extraneous digital noise. The unobtrusive notifications are the killer feature for lawyers, allowing them to receive important information while in court or meetings. The watch is a great way to help unclutter the digital worlds of the busy lawyers.
Next up, a few books that might be of interest to the lawyer in your life.* First, there's the recently published Second Edition of "How to Capture and Keep Clients: Marketing Strategies for Lawyers," (ABA 2015) written by attorney Jennifer J. Rose. This incredibly useful book includes chapters on all aspects of legal marketing written by more than 27 lawyers and legal marketing experts. Whether you're a new lawyer seeking to obtain your first client or a seasoned attorney interested in learning about new ways to reach potential clients, this book is for you.
Another book to consider is "How Did She Do That? Marketing Success" (ABA 2015), written by Dee A. Schiavelli and Afi S. Johnson-Parris. This useful book provides women lawyers with business development ideas and implementation tips, which are gleaned from interviews with women lawyers who have successfully navigated the marketing maze to the benefit of their careers.
A third book to add to your gift list is "The Future of Professions" by Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind. This fascinating read predicts the decline of many professions, including the legal profession, and suggests which people - and technologies and systems - will replace them. It provides a ton of great insight and would be the perfect gift for any forward-thinking lawyer.
Finally, there are the gifts made by lawyers, as suggested by my good friend and co-author Carolyn Elefant at her blog, MyShingle.com. After all, what better gift for a lawyer than one created by another lawyer? First, IP solo lawyer Steve O'Donnell offers a delicious assortment of candied and seasoned peanuts in more than a dozen unique flavors (online: http://tinyurl.com/candiednuts).
Next, Maryland-based family law attorney Elizabeth Pugliese creates colorful quilted blankets, table runners, and more. You can purchase her work at Legal Quilts (www.facebook.com/ legalquilts/), and 25 percent of proceeds from purchases made during the holiday season go to charity.
If beautifully carved and decorated wooden bowls, spoons, ladles and more are your style, then former solo Donna Canfield's creations may be right up your alley. You can view her work here at "Live a Life Less Ordinary" (www.livealifelessordinary.com/index.html).
Finally, by way of blatant self-promotion, my nature-inspired jewelry creations might be the perfect gift for the women attorneys (or even non-attorneys) in your life. My jewelry can be found at my new online store, Legally Boho Jewelry (www.legally-boho-jewelry.com).
So there you have it! Lots of great gift ideas. So what are you waiting for? Start shopping!
*By way of disclaimer, I received complimentary review copies of each of these books.
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Nicole Black is an attorney and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase.com, a cloud-based law practice management platform. She is the nationally-recognized author of the ABA book "Cloud Computing for Lawyers," coauthors the ABA book "Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier," and co-authors "Criminal Law in New York," a West-Thomson treatise. She speaks regularly at conferences regarding the intersection of law and technology and can be reached at niki@mycase.com.
Published: Tue, Dec 08, 2015
