Over at Legality, we’ve been comparing notes on what everyone got for Christmas from their lawyers.

Our membership includes legal secretaries and paralegals from across the country and from just about every firm size and practice area, and it turns out holiday generosity is just one more way in which every lawyer has his own . . . um . . . unique approach.

After what I’ve heard from my fellow list members, I’m even more grateful for the generous gift cards I received from Messrs. A, B, and C than I did before I heard others’ experiences. Thanks again, guys!

The good:

• The firm president who walked around personally handing every staff member an envelope containing a small cash gift. This guy knows how to make a small amount of money go a long way towards boosting employee morale. What a class act.
• A card with $200 tucked inside — from a first-year. Corner-office partners, hang your heads.
• $200 cash given to a secretary who know longer officially works for the lawyer, but who has been very helpful to him in the past year.
• A $595 Burberry tote bag plus a large check. Excessive? Maybe, but who cares?
• A $100 gift card to a secretary who has only been with the lawyer for a couple of weeks.

The bad:

• An uber-expensive yet ugly “bean pot” to add to the collection of two the secretary has already received from the same lawyer. I loved the suggestion of another member: Plant a cactus in it and give it back to the lawyer on Boss’s Day.
• A gift card to a seafood restaurant, given by the same bean-pot lawyer to a secretary who hates seafood. And she’s not sure whether to even re-gift it, since it’s not large enough for a complete meal for two.

The ugly:

• Nothing . . . from a lawyer who had promised her secretary a massage gift certificate.
• Nothing . . . from the lawyer whose excuse is that he is “always behind on deadlines.” Hey, no worries. Cash is totally acceptable. You do have that, don’t you?
• Nothing . . . from a first-year who tries to be “friends” with her secretary — but snubs the secretary when other lawyers are looking.
• Nothing . . . from two partners who both gave cash envelopes last year. Are they trying to say their secretaries went from nice to naughty this year?

Readers, it’s your turn: Tell us what you got. Or didn’t get.