Douglas Hand doesn’t fit the lawyer stereotype. He operates almost exclusively within the fashion realm and, as a partner in HBA LLC, works with clients such as from Mansur Gavriel and rag & bone to Cynthia Rowley and Todd Snyder, as well as the CFDA. It’s no surprise that sartorial matters are top of mind for Hand. So when the American Bar Association approached him to write the book, he jumped at the opportunity.

With his first book, The Laws of Style: Sartorial Excellence for the Professional Gentleman, Hand provides a sartorial context to professional attire and makes a case for the importance of professional presentation and getting business casual right.

“Business casual is an oxymoronic term that’s become normal in people’s minds,” Hand said. “Some men exercise too much on the casual side perhaps, and others get a little trapped in not wanting to get out of their safety zone.”

Hand conceded that with more than two decades of practicing law with a fashion focus under his belt, he may have more leeway than others when it comes to professional attire. But regardless of the field or profession, the fashion goal should always be the same: Self-expression. Take it from his personal experience.

“As I face my daily choice of what to put on and how to present myself, I get to have a very thought-provoking dialog,” he explained. “It’s a wonderful equation to solve every day. Men miss out on a lot in the relationship with their clothes and their self-expression.”

Hand himself started out his legal career on the conservative end of the style spectrum. “I bought what I refer to as the fundamental four suits: blue pinstripe, gray flannel, charcoal pinstripe, and navy blue,” he recalled. “I rotated those four suits on a weekly basis. Now, I still wear those four suits. They signal lawyer, professional, and seriousness. But now I throw in little flourishes.”

On the day of this interview, Hand was all town and country, sporting a Donegal tweed suit by Todd Snyder with a shirt and tie from Rag & Bone. He accessorized the look with Oliver Peoples frames, a Rolex watch, Paul Stuart socks and To Boot shoes.

Finding the right balance of casual and authority is no easy feat, and requires an important ingredient: Confidence.

“Casual, or anything outside the normal conservative box of suit and tie, is like walking on a sartorial tightrope,” he said. “Confidence is that bar to hold onto, to help with balance. The longer the bar is, the easier it is to walk out there. But you can’t just snap your fingers and have it. You have to understand the laws that I enumerated in the book to get it.”

On the current state of sartorial affairs in corporate America, Hand had this to say: “It’s a mess out there. We can go to a bygone age, when almost everyone wore a suit…the broad shoulders, the tapering in of the waist…the suit can hide a lot of flaws. Business casual is a place where men can actually exercise self-expression, but it’s a conundrum for most men who, for time or lack of interest, don’t care.”

That sentiment extends to the current administration. “Despite some of its ties to the fashion industry, it  has been somewhat uninspired,” he said, and, in reference to Trump’s penchant to tape his ties together, added, “Let the tie what the tie wants to do. The tie is a wonderful area for self-expression. The Italians do it wonderfully. Gianni Agnelli had the short end of the tie longer than the wide hand to basically say, ‘I don’t care and I am so stylish that it doesn’t matter and in fact this is going to be the style.’”

Hand’s overall fashion philosophy is actually rather simple. “I am in favor not of business casual but business self-expression. The two are different. The way you present yourself can actually be inspiring to you. I want men to get into it to a degree where they not only care but they feel that this is a great way for them to communicate who they are.”

As for the accessory every self-respecting man should own, Hand points to his own classic umbrella with a chic wooden handle. “Trust that if you spend a lot on that umbrella, you won’t =lose it,” he said. “You will be worried about forgetting it so that you won’t. With a proper umbrella, you will feel like a knight in shining armor.”

The Laws of Style is available to purchase here. Come join Todds Snyder this Thursday from 6-8pm at his Madison Square store for a special conversation on the state of menswear featuring CFDA’s Steven Kolb and Douglas Hand, who will sign copies of his book.