A client came in to collect documents following completion of various matters we did for her and her family company. She has been a very nice client and true to form, she brought a bottle of wine along with her. I don’t know yet what vintage this was, because I felt it was something the office should share together, especially given that the office Christmas lunch is only a little more than a week away. Anyway after some courteous exchanges between the boss and I he (the boss) agreed to take the wine for the lunch next week. Anyway this blog isn’t about whether an employee is entitled to keep such gifts to himself or herself. It’s about what a nice feeling it is to be given something like that. We charged her good legal fees for the work we did so that was our reward. So this bottle of red isn’t reward for that – it was a gesture of goodwill, perhaps in the context of the Christmas season. This is not the norm, not even in Malaysia. There, the supplier of services is the usual giver of gifts, not the consumer of such services. The client therefore usually receives, not gives, gifts. The lawyer receives gifts not from the client, but from supplier of goods and services the lawyer consumes, such as his landlord, his stationery suppliers, etc. Sometimes we (lawyers in Malaysia) received gifts from clients but that is only when they needed us to be performing at optimum level. These gifts were some sort of incentives, over and above the fees they paid us. This present client has no reason to be giving such a gift – their matter has concluded. It was therefore a genuine gesture of appreciation, which is truly cherished. Unfortunately I am not able to disclose this client’s name. Thank you so much. You really made my day.