What’s in a Biglaw name? A lot, actually. Mix up your K names and you could end up working for a spineless firm that puts profits over principles (Kirkland) instead of getting free Coca-Cola in the break room (King & Spalding). And before you say that worrying about names is making a mountain out of a molehill, at least one Biglaw name actually comes with mountains: Quinn Emanuel. For decades, Quinn has offered optional hikes as team building exercises. That tradition continues to today. Forbes has coverage:
“It’s intense,” says Tigran Guledjian, partner at Quinn Emanuel and co-chair of the firm’s national intellectual property litigation practice. He helps run the hikes, and has been attending them for more than 20 years. “You carry your own backpack with your own tent, and your own sleeping bag, and your own food, and you are responsible for yourself. There’s nobody out there who is going to do anything for you, other than your colleagues.”
The firm’s hiking tradition began in 1993, when founder John B. Quinn led 15 legal analysts through Coyote Gulch in Utah. Since then, the outing has grown significantly, and the firm started travelling internationally in 2008. Now hundreds of employees flock each year to iconic trails like Switzerland’s Faulhornweg, Japan’s Mount Fuji, and Greece’s Mount Olympus, to name a few.
I guess some people will do anything for an excuse to not respond to their work emails.
Firm-sponsored touching grass is a great opportunity to get to know your co-workers better. And while there is still some risk of biting at these work events, chances are the mouth belongs to a bear and not a quirky Sidley Austin associate. One thing’s for sure, hiking up a mountain is one of those work events that definitely couldn’t have been an email.
It isn’t all fun and photo-ops, though. Prior associates have accidentally stepped off the beaten path and needed rescue, not to mention that if you sign up and back out before the big day you might have to reimburse the firm for spending on your seat. This is definitely one of those read the waiver before you sign deals. Their last trip had hundreds of associates hiking the Andes Mountains in Peru. If you were a part of the trip, how was it? Feel free to brag about the mountain air and tell us via tips@abovethelaw.com!
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
The post Nothing Beats A Break From Billables Quite Like Hiking appeared first on Above the Law.
What’s in a Biglaw name? A lot, actually. Mix up your K names and you could end up working for a spineless firm that puts profits over principles (Kirkland) instead of getting free Coca-Cola in the break room (King & Spalding). And before you say that worrying about names is making a mountain out of a molehill, at least one Biglaw name actually comes with mountains: Quinn Emanuel. For decades, Quinn has offered optional hikes as team building exercises. That tradition continues to today. Forbes has coverage:
“It’s intense,” says Tigran Guledjian, partner at Quinn Emanuel and co-chair of the firm’s national intellectual property litigation practice. He helps run the hikes, and has been attending them for more than 20 years. “You carry your own backpack with your own tent, and your own sleeping bag, and your own food, and you are responsible for yourself. There’s nobody out there who is going to do anything for you, other than your colleagues.”
The firm’s hiking tradition began in 1993, when founder John B. Quinn led 15 legal analysts through Coyote Gulch in Utah. Since then, the outing has grown significantly, and the firm started travelling internationally in 2008. Now hundreds of employees flock each year to iconic trails like Switzerland’s Faulhornweg, Japan’s Mount Fuji, and Greece’s Mount Olympus, to name a few.
I guess some people will do anything for an excuse to not respond to their work emails.
Firm-sponsored touching grass is a great opportunity to get to know your co-workers better. And while there is still some risk of biting at these work events, chances are the mouth belongs to a bear and not a quirky Sidley Austin associate. One thing’s for sure, hiking up a mountain is one of those work events that definitely couldn’t have been an email.
It isn’t all fun and photo-ops, though. Prior associates have accidentally stepped off the beaten path and needed rescue, not to mention that if you sign up and back out before the big day you might have to reimburse the firm for spending on your seat. This is definitely one of those read the waiver before you sign deals. Their last trip had hundreds of associates hiking the Andes Mountains in Peru. If you were a part of the trip, how was it? Feel free to brag about the mountain air and tell us via [email protected]!
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
