33 Comments

  1. Has anyone tried one of the mini computers, like Dell Mini? I am looking at purchasing one as my secondary home computer. From what I’m told, I would be able to just stick this uber-tiny notebook into my briefcase or a large purse. That way, I could easily work on-the-go (e.g., while waiting at the doctor/dentist office, while on the train, while waiting for a client to arrive to a meeting). I have a Blackberry containing the Documents on the Go app, but it is way too difficult to type anything lengthy on that thing. I can barely deal with typing lengthy emails on the Blackberry.

    Thoughts about mini computers are welcomed…

  2. I just got a Dell Mini a few weeks ago, and I love it! I did add a tiny plug-in mouse, because I found the touch pad hard to use for heavy-duty work. I’ve traveled with it, and it’s MUCH better than lugging my regular laptop.

  3. I just purchased a little Toshiba and I’m ecstatic about it. It was about $200 cheaper than the Dell for the exact same specs. I’ve had it for about a week and it’s been doing really well. Small enough to put into my purse, and the battery on it it OUTRAGEOUS. It’s rated to last 9 hours, depending on tasks and screen settings, and based on the 2+ hours I spent working on loading up programs, I think it’ll get close to 8 hours with movies. The keypad is supposed to be 92% of the regular sized laptops, but I can’t tell the difference.

  4. I bought a Chico’s Bliss (their new no-cling jersey) faux wrap dress a few years ago and I love it. It is black and white. I wish I could find other heavyweight jersey wrap dresses in XL sizes. Any ideas?

  5. I have had an hp mini since about April. I took my law school finals and the bar in it. It’s great and totally fits in my purse without being heavy.

  6. @ Mama JD

    I’ve seen the Eee pc and it really is an ideal little thing. The size of a book. Get the extra powerful batteries though!

  7. I am a public defender. I received my first bar complaint and am now completely depressed for the weekend. I don’t think they have any legitimate complaints, but I am still scared. Mostly of letting the partners in the firm down. Any advice on getting through a tough time at work?

    1. @millelilly What a shame about your bar complaint! I haven’t had one yet but I know that it is only a matter of time. I really liked the idea about writing a really nasty letter to get out all of your anger, but not sending it of course. Best of luck to you!!!

  8. Millie, Those things are inevitable, so don’t beat yourself up too hard about it. The best attitude to project is that you take it seriously, but you are confident in your own actions and ethics. The partners should help guide you through it. If you have any real concerns about what happened, discuss it with a trusted partner.

  9. Mille: I agree with Kate – as a long time public defender, I’ve dealt with this a few times. The clients start out with a view that you’re not a “real” lawyer so these are inevitable. Write out the response you want to send to the bar, including every angry word and bad thing you can say about the client, but then put that response in the drawer for a couple of days. Then you can go back and actually write your response to the bar. Do your response carefully since a lot of these are resolved with the attorney’s response alone and nothing else is needed. Keep your head up and continue to do good work.

  10. I got an acer computer about a year ago and love it. I am a lobbyist and spend half my year out of the office. It was too much to lug a heavy computer around all day. It weighs 2 pounds and fits in my purse. I use it for word documents and the internet and it is great. Check out the acers- for a secondary use computer they are only about $300.

  11. We are discussing having a baby and (among other things) I am concerned about professional maternity clothes. I work in a pretty conservative law office and need to wear a suit most days. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

  12. When I was pregnant– I had two babies in two years while working full time at my firm– I purchased a few work-appropriate maternity dresses and wore my suit jackets over them. I would try to fake a suit if you absolutely have to wear one– maternity jackets are pretty awful for the most part and maternity clothes in general are unbelievably expensive and poorly made. Also, the major maternity shops will not let you return anything. It’s ridiculous. I found that maternity skirts are also pretty bad- the dress is much more flattering. I bought some black and patterned dresses- there’s not a great deal of selection– and generally wore a black or gray jacket on formal days.

    Of course, depending on your frame and how much weight you gain, you don’t need to worry about buying maternity until your third or fourth month– at least for your first baby. Some people say they buy a size up from their regular clothes (those bigger clothes will come in handy right after you have that baby, too), but I found that those clothes never really fit right. Maternity stuff is cut specifically for the expanding belly and fit best. Of the major shops, I thought Mimi Maternity had the best selection of work-appropriate clothes while still being at least somewhat affordable. The quality at Motherhood is unbelievably poor, and Pea In A Pod is just too expensive for clothes you really are only going to wear for a few months.

    At the end of my pregnancies, when it was impossible to find anything to wear and nothing fit anymore, people were pretty forgiving and no one was scrutinizing my wardrobe for strict compliance with the dress code. Just showing up to work when you are 9 months pregnant is enough to convince colleagues of your dedication to the firm– forget about wearing a suit.

  13. TGH, August 22, 2009 at 10:50 am said:
    “We are discussing having a baby and (among other things) I am concerned about professional maternity clothes. I work in a pretty conservative law office and need to wear a suit most days. Anybody have any thoughts on this?”

    Corporette did an issue on it not too long ago with a title that went something like “A bun in the oven and a mother in court”. Readers chipped in there too. Did you read that already?

  14. TGH – Motherhood Maternity sells reasonably priced suits – nothing super fancy, but they carry the staples. I found that JC Penney’s separates in black didn’t match, so watch out for that. If you’re looking to have a maternity wardrobe to get through a few pregnancies, A Pea in the Pod has some nice items, but they are pricey.

  15. Maternity clothes…I wore my own clothes until about my sixth month and then I bought one nice 4 piece wool suit (Jacket/pants/skirt/dress) and maybe one or two other dresses and wore them until the end (1st pregnancy was clerking, second was in the law firm then) If anyone noticed I wore the same clothes, they didn’t mention it. I bought one dressy dress from A Pea…and wore it for all holiday parties etc… (delivered in Feb). Old Navy actually has cute casual maternity clothes that are not that expensive (we were biz casual on Friday). Set a budget for maternity clothes and if you think you’ll do it again within 2-3 years, dry clean then and save for the next go round. With the second, I was in maternity clothes much sooner than the first.

    I’d love any hits in the heavy-weight jersey dresses also.

  16. While pregnant, I wore two suits from A Pea in the Pod (one black skirt suit for important meetings that was pretty pricey and another tweed that was on clearance) and a gray pant suit from Motherhood Maternity. Otherwise, I wore dark-colored, simple (i.e., without excessive ruffles, frills and bows) dresses in black, navy, charcoal gray, and brown with a strand of pearls to dress them up even more.

    I stalked A Pea in the Pod’s clearance racks b/c I loved the quality of their clothes but didn’t want to spend an astronomical amount on temporary clothing, but a lot of my items came from the more affordable Motherhood Maternity too.

    Since I gave birth, Ann Taylor has started a maternity line, but I am not familiar with what clothing they offer.

  17. I used some Liz Lange Maternity during my pregnancies. The line is at Target stores – how many items are in the store seems to vary from store to store, and I’ve never checked to see if there is anything on the Target website. There is nothing super-dressy there, but I did find some blouses, skirts, and pants that worked, and the price is right. Like Motherhood Maternity, the quality is pretty low, but it’s not like you’re going to wear these items once a week for the rest of your life.

    In my part of the country (the Midwest), Motherhood is the lowest quality/price, Mimi Maternity is a bit more expensive with a slight increase in quality, and Pea int the Pod is pretty darn expensive, but fairly cute and “designer-y.” I checked each of those places (and Target) regularly and built up my wardrobe. I got a maternity suit at JC Penneys out of despartation, but that was a low point in my first pregnancy! There were no redeeming qualities about that suit – except that it was actually a suit. Good luck!

  18. One other thing on the maternity clothes issue – I am fortunate enough to have sisters who have also been pregnant, so I was able to triple my maternity wardrobe by borrowing theirs. Do you know any other professional women you might be able to do this with? I would also recommend trying high-end used clothing shops. I know I took some of my old maternity clothes to a local consignment store when I was finished with them.

  19. TGH, you might get some maternity belly bands (google for belly band or maternity band and you’ll find them). They cover your stomach and lower waist area, covering up any gap under the hem of your shirt and any unbuttoned buttons on your pants, but they look just like you’re wearing a cami underneath. That’ll help you wear your regular suits a while longer.

    I’m also a lawyer and all the pregnant woman I’ve seen in the office switched to cardigans instead of jackets. I don’t think anyone, even the most conservative partner or judge, is really going to argue with a 8-month-pregnant woman wearing a black cardigan because her suits obviously don’t fit anymore.

  20. I’m a consultant and have found some great black dress pants at the Gap, which I often pair with a (nonmaternity) trapeze jacket in grey or black. I really like the quality of stuff from Gap over Motherhood or Mimi Maternity. I’m 6 months pregnant with my first and am JUST now having to switch to some sort of maternity jacket. Good luck!

  21. The HP Mini 2140 was highly rated by CNET (google it). I bought the lower end model for less money and I have been very happy with it. Be careful with the antivirus that comes with it. It could cause the computer to appear to be slow because it is checking everything you are browsing on the web.

  22. Very strange shout-out to those of us on a budget: on a whim, I looked in the George section of WalMart the other day and saw a black sheath dress that looked like, from twenty paces, maybe a poly/cotton blend. Turns out it’s poly/rayon, but MUCH less obvious than most sheath dresses I’ve seen in my budget in Macys, Belk, etc. This one is $16. I have wanted a black sheath dress to wear to work (not to see clients, as a student) but wasn’t ready to purchase my forever-piece. This dress (and this price) were amazing, it looks perfectly professional (at least for a clerk), and comes in a huge range of sizes.

  23. I love WalMart. If you’re careful, you can find some very useful items there, for practically no money. Lately my focus has been more on housewares. I bought a trifle dish for $6.97 that looks similar to one at Simon Pearce for about 20 times that amount. Considering that I’ll use it once every two or three years, that’s fine with me!

  24. I have some very nice George pieces–WSJ did a piece on them when they debuted, so I checked them out, and indeed, they are as good as lower end department store stuff, most of the time, sometimes even better. I’ll have to check out the sheath dress. I like the size range!!!

    I got some amazing organic cotton sheets there, too. They have held up better than some really high end conventional sheets I have!

  25. Re: Maternity clothes

    I’m a surgeon, so I have my white coat to go with everything, but when I was pregnant I was fond of Ann Taylor Loft maternity stuff. It was cute, reasonably priced, and very comfortable. Things run large there. I had a standard outfit of black or khaki maternity pants, cute maternity top/blouse and black cardigan or white lab coat for clinic. I also bought a pair of black leather Cole Haan driving mocs to wear. Much more comfortable than heels, soft as anything and somewhat forgiving as my feet swelled at the end. I agree with most everyone — I dare anyoen to make a comment when you are hauling your nine month pregnant self into the office everyday for a full day of work. No one said a word to me, though I was dressing a notch down from what my non-pregnant self usually wears.

  26. Question about haircuts since the haircut thread is a ways back at this point…does anyone have a link or idea of where I could look for a picture of side bangs to take to my salon? I have mid-back length straight hair and I’d love to get it cut just below my shoulders with side bangs (which seemed to be a good option based on everyone’s responses), but I haven’t had bangs since I was a kid, so I’m terrified to get them again without a good picture of exactly what they should look like!

  27. One of my fave skirts is from Walmart’s “George” line. It is wool and lined and flares out. It is a gray tweed w/ a khaki color running into it. I wear it w/ a black shell and a khaki jacket and knee high leather boots. I get nothing but compliments and it is my little secret where it is from.

  28. Maternity clothes – I had twins and was big from pretty early on. I second the dress! Maternity dresses are very flattering, and there are many professional offerings that can be worn with nice cardigans/non-maternity jackets. Maternity jackets are, for the most part, scary things. For the absolutely necessary suit days, the best bets are A Pea in the Pod and Ann Taylor. Gap Maternity also has a lot of good professional offerings. At the end, I think I wore the same pair of black pants 3 days a week. Everyone was understanding.

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