New-ish lit associate at a V10, and we have an annual “book” budget of $300, which can rollover to the next year. It can be used pretty broadly—I know associates at my firm have been able to use it for anything ranging from marketing books to books on giving & receiving feedback, as well as the traditional books/publications you’d think of (bluebook, WSJ, NYTimes, Model Jury Instructions). Just have to be able to remotely justify how it would assist you.
Not sure if other firms have a similar policy, but wanted to know where others would use this budget if they had access to it. To me, this is a huge budget, so I’m trying to find ways to use it that could serve me for life beyond biglaw/legal career.
Book Budget? Forum
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The Lsat Airbender
- Posts: 1801
- Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2019 7:34 pm
Re: Book Budget?
Subscriptions to a few good newspapers/magazines is pretty classy and you could chew up $300 pretty quickly. Put the apps on your phone and never find yourself wanting for reading material on the subway etc.:
- NYT Food/Crossword subscriptions, in addition to the actual paper along with the WSJ
- The Economist
- Harvard Business Review
If people are really pushing the envelope in terms of generic self-improvement stuff, I'd also get some nonfiction classics, to look good on a bookshelf for virtue-signalling purposes. Off the top of my head:
- The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660–1783
- My 60 Memorable Games (Bobby Fischer)
- A good biography of your favorite U.S. President(s) (I like Mornings on Horseback)
- Something to do with your practice area (e.g., if you were in M&A corp, Mergers & Acquisitions: A Valuation Handbook)
- NYT Food/Crossword subscriptions, in addition to the actual paper along with the WSJ
- The Economist
- Harvard Business Review
If people are really pushing the envelope in terms of generic self-improvement stuff, I'd also get some nonfiction classics, to look good on a bookshelf for virtue-signalling purposes. Off the top of my head:
- The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660–1783
- My 60 Memorable Games (Bobby Fischer)
- A good biography of your favorite U.S. President(s) (I like Mornings on Horseback)
- Something to do with your practice area (e.g., if you were in M&A corp, Mergers & Acquisitions: A Valuation Handbook)
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Person1111
- Posts: 496
- Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 11:10 pm
Re: Book Budget?
There are a bunch of legal writing books (particularly those by Bryan Garner/Ross Guberman) that are pretty good. If you do a lot of work in a particular industry or if certain issues keep recurring in some of your cases, it is often helpful to purchase a book about those issues. (For example, I have had the firm buy several economics monographs that deal with a damages methodology commonly used by plaintiffs' lawyers.)
