Best Summer Associate Event Forum

[QContinuum]

I think you should aim for a mix of events - and perhaps allow summers to gracefully excuse themselves from events that are not in their wheelhouse (perhaps some sort of free pass from one event?). For example, a weekend of drinking in NOLA sounds absolutely terrible to me - if I had known in advance that would be happening at the firm I was going to, I would have done everything in my power to avoid having to go. Lots of summers aren't golfers, and some may not want to spend their time heavily drinking (or drinking at all) for various reasons. Try and be as inclusive as you can - it might *sound* fund to fly everyone to Jamaica and spend the weekend getting spa treatments, but if one of your summer associates is a single parent, that's really going to make it difficult for them to attend.

Ultimately, almost all of your summers are going to come back as associates, regardless of the events you have - the 3L job market isn't great! - and sometimes it's not about having the event that 3/4 of the summers will remember forever, while the other 1/4 is miserable. It's about having consistent opportunities for the summers to meet people and feel like a part of the firm. I fully recognize that I might be in the minority of people who *hated* the "fun" events as a summer associate - obviously we're all different, and there's no pleasing everyone.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now I've had a great time at more low-key events, like taco truck tours, paint-nites, cooking competitions, escape rooms, going to a play, etc. The museum idea sounds great too - I would have really enjoyed that.

Yes, this x 1000. I hated feeling like events were mandatory, and I especially I would hate having to pretend like I am having fun at a golf outing. "24 hours of debauchery in New Orleans with the partners" sounds like an invitation to inappropriate behavior, and I am actually surprised a firm would take a risk like that given the current atmosphere. I also enjoyed the more low key things (museum night / painting night / etc), otherwise the events just felt too much like a frat party to me .

Fourthing this. If my summer program had had such an event I would've done everything in my power to find a good excuse to not go. I can see some/many summers LOVING such an event (a group which I suspect would be disproportionately white men from wealthy backgrounds), but many others would be in the "grin and bear it" category.

Box seats to concerts are generally popular. I understand last summer, folks loved the opportunity to see T-Swift and Beyonce perform. If NYC, Shakespeare in the Park and sailing on the Hudson are perennial favorites. Museum outings also tend to be popular across the board.

[JohnnieSockran]

I think you should aim for a mix of events - and perhaps allow summers to gracefully excuse themselves from events that are not in their wheelhouse (perhaps some sort of free pass from one event?). For example, a weekend of drinking in NOLA sounds absolutely terrible to me - if I had known in advance that would be happening at the firm I was going to, I would have done everything in my power to avoid having to go. Lots of summers aren't golfers, and some may not want to spend their time heavily drinking (or drinking at all) for various reasons. Try and be as inclusive as you can - it might *sound* fund to fly everyone to Jamaica and spend the weekend getting spa treatments, but if one of your summer associates is a single parent, that's really going to make it difficult for them to attend.

Ultimately, almost all of your summers are going to come back as associates, regardless of the events you have - the 3L job market isn't great! - and sometimes it's not about having the event that 3/4 of the summers will remember forever, while the other 1/4 is miserable. It's about having consistent opportunities for the summers to meet people and feel like a part of the firm. I fully recognize that I might be in the minority of people who *hated* the "fun" events as a summer associate - obviously we're all different, and there's no pleasing everyone.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now I've had a great time at more low-key events, like taco truck tours, paint-nites, cooking competitions, escape rooms, going to a play, etc. The museum idea sounds great too - I would have really enjoyed that.

Yes, this x 1000. I hated feeling like events were mandatory, and I especially I would hate having to pretend like I am having fun at a golf outing. "24 hours of debauchery in New Orleans with the partners" sounds like an invitation to inappropriate behavior, and I am actually surprised a firm would take a risk like that given the current atmosphere. I also enjoyed the more low key things (museum night / painting night / etc), otherwise the events just felt too much like a frat party to me .

Fourthing this. If my summer program had had such an event I would've done everything in my power to find a good excuse to not go. I can see some/many summers LOVING such an event (a group which I suspect would be disproportionately white men from wealthy backgrounds), but many others would be in the "grin and bear it" category.

Box seats to concerts are generally popular. I understand last summer, folks loved the opportunity to see T-Swift and Beyonce perform. If NYC, Shakespeare in the Park and sailing on the Hudson are perennial favorites. Museum outings also tend to be popular across the board.

Love how comfortable people are throwing around the bolded/underlined generalization.

[Samark45]

I think you should aim for a mix of events - and perhaps allow summers to gracefully excuse themselves from events that are not in their wheelhouse (perhaps some sort of free pass from one event?). For example, a weekend of drinking in NOLA sounds absolutely terrible to me - if I had known in advance that would be happening at the firm I was going to, I would have done everything in my power to avoid having to go. Lots of summers aren't golfers, and some may not want to spend their time heavily drinking (or drinking at all) for various reasons. Try and be as inclusive as you can - it might *sound* fund to fly everyone to Jamaica and spend the weekend getting spa treatments, but if one of your summer associates is a single parent, that's really going to make it difficult for them to attend.

Ultimately, almost all of your summers are going to come back as associates, regardless of the events you have - the 3L job market isn't great! - and sometimes it's not about having the event that 3/4 of the summers will remember forever, while the other 1/4 is miserable. It's about having consistent opportunities for the summers to meet people and feel like a part of the firm. I fully recognize that I might be in the minority of people who *hated* the "fun" events as a summer associate - obviously we're all different, and there's no pleasing everyone.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now I've had a great time at more low-key events, like taco truck tours, paint-nites, cooking competitions, escape rooms, going to a play, etc. The museum idea sounds great too - I would have really enjoyed that.

Yes, this x 1000. I hated feeling like events were mandatory, and I especially I would hate having to pretend like I am having fun at a golf outing. "24 hours of debauchery in New Orleans with the partners" sounds like an invitation to inappropriate behavior, and I am actually surprised a firm would take a risk like that given the current atmosphere. I also enjoyed the more low key things (museum night / painting night / etc), otherwise the events just felt too much like a frat party to me .

Fourthing this. If my summer program had had such an event I would've done everything in my power to find a good excuse to not go. I can see some/many summers LOVING such an event (a group which I suspect would be disproportionately white men from wealthy backgrounds), but many others would be in the "grin and bear it" category.

Box seats to concerts are generally popular. I understand last summer, folks loved the opportunity to see T-Swift and Beyonce perform. If NYC, Shakespeare in the Park and sailing on the Hudson are perennial favorites. Museum outings also tend to be popular across the board.

Love how comfortable people are throwing around the bolded/underlined generalization.

I agree that on my first read of that post, that part bothered me too. If there were any generalizations made here about what summer activities some other demographic "would disproportionately" love (based on gender, race, or sexual orientation), people would be up in arms. But pot shots at "white men from wealthy backgrounds" is now part of of "woke" culture, or virtue signalling, and anyone who's got a problem with that should just go to Reddit's redpill forum to languish. Sad!

[JohnnieSockran]

I think you should aim for a mix of events - and perhaps allow summers to gracefully excuse themselves from events that are not in their wheelhouse (perhaps some sort of free pass from one event?). For example, a weekend of drinking in NOLA sounds absolutely terrible to me - if I had known in advance that would be happening at the firm I was going to, I would have done everything in my power to avoid having to go. Lots of summers aren't golfers, and some may not want to spend their time heavily drinking (or drinking at all) for various reasons. Try and be as inclusive as you can - it might *sound* fund to fly everyone to Jamaica and spend the weekend getting spa treatments, but if one of your summer associates is a single parent, that's really going to make it difficult for them to attend.

Ultimately, almost all of your summers are going to come back as associates, regardless of the events you have - the 3L job market isn't great! - and sometimes it's not about having the event that 3/4 of the summers will remember forever, while the other 1/4 is miserable. It's about having consistent opportunities for the summers to meet people and feel like a part of the firm. I fully recognize that I might be in the minority of people who *hated* the "fun" events as a summer associate - obviously we're all different, and there's no pleasing everyone.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now I've had a great time at more low-key events, like taco truck tours, paint-nites, cooking competitions, escape rooms, going to a play, etc. The museum idea sounds great too - I would have really enjoyed that.

Yes, this x 1000. I hated feeling like events were mandatory, and I especially I would hate having to pretend like I am having fun at a golf outing. "24 hours of debauchery in New Orleans with the partners" sounds like an invitation to inappropriate behavior, and I am actually surprised a firm would take a risk like that given the current atmosphere. I also enjoyed the more low key things (museum night / painting night / etc), otherwise the events just felt too much like a frat party to me .

Fourthing this. If my summer program had had such an event I would've done everything in my power to find a good excuse to not go. I can see some/many summers LOVING such an event (a group which I suspect would be disproportionately white men from wealthy backgrounds), but many others would be in the "grin and bear it" category.

Box seats to concerts are generally popular. I understand last summer, folks loved the opportunity to see T-Swift and Beyonce perform. If NYC, Shakespeare in the Park and sailing on the Hudson are perennial favorites. Museum outings also tend to be popular across the board.

Love how comfortable people are throwing around the bolded/underlined generalization.

Would've preferred not to have been outed for this because it signals as to my race and socioeconomic background, but I guess when the mods are the ones making the generalizations, best just accept it and fall in line!

Not that I offer a ton of great advice, but I won't be posting on these forums anymore because of things like this where there is such free reign to remove anonymity, which in this case, is probably because Q took it personal after making a sweeping generalization.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

That generalization rings pretty true, though.

[QContinuum]

Would've preferred not to have been outed for this because it signals as to my race and socioeconomic background, but I guess when the mods are the ones making the generalizations, best just accept it and fall in line!

Not that I offer a ton of great advice, but I won't be posting on these forums anymore because of things like this where there is such free reign to remove anonymity, which in this case, is probably because Q took it personal after making a sweeping generalization.

There are plenty of minorities and women and folks from poor socioeconomic backgrounds who advocate for rich white men every day. Advocating for rich white men does not inherently reveal anything about the advocate's gender, race or socioeconomic status.

You were not outed because you criticized me, you were outed because your post did not warrant anon.

[Dunnkirk85]

Would've preferred not to have been outed for this because it signals as to my race and socioeconomic background, but I guess when the mods are the ones making the generalizations, best just accept it and fall in line!

Not that I offer a ton of great advice, but I won't be posting on these forums anymore because of things like this where there is such free reign to remove anonymity, which in this case, is probably because Q took it personal after making a sweeping generalization.

There are plenty of minorities and women and folks from poor socioeconomic backgrounds who advocate for rich white men every day. Advocating for rich white men does not inherently reveal anything about the advocate's gender, race or socioeconomic status.

You were not outed because you criticized me, you were outed because your post did not warrant anon.

I have seen 100s of posts on this forum in the past couple of months abusing the anon feature, and there are even some on this thread that don’t warrant the anon feature. Weird

[QContinuum]

Would've preferred not to have been outed for this because it signals as to my race and socioeconomic background, but I guess when the mods are the ones making the generalizations, best just accept it and fall in line!

Not that I offer a ton of great advice, but I won't be posting on these forums anymore because of things like this where there is such free reign to remove anonymity, which in this case, is probably because Q took it personal after making a sweeping generalization.

There are plenty of minorities and women and folks from poor socioeconomic backgrounds who advocate for rich white men every day. Advocating for rich white men does not inherently reveal anything about the advocate's gender, race or socioeconomic status.

You were not outed because you criticized me, you were outed because your post did not warrant anon.

I have seen 100s of posts on this forum in the past couple of months abusing the anon feature, and there are even some on this thread that don’t warrant the anon feature. Weird

I don't screen every single post made on this forum. If you notice abuse of the anon feature, you should report it for moderator review.

[Splurgles23]

That generalization rings pretty true, though.

That's a pretty dangerous criterion to use...

[LaLiLuLeLo]

That generalization rings pretty true, though.

That's a pretty dangerous criterion to use...

A field dominated by wealthy white men has summer events that largely cater to wealthy white men.

Say it ain’t so.

[dawgs113]

Clearly the best summer event is QE’s summer hike. What could be better than hiking for days in the mountains with such DANGEROUS TRIAL LAWYERS?

[Halp]

Clearly the best summer event is QE’s summer hike. What could be better than hiking for days in the mountains with such DANGEROUS TRIAL LAWYERS?

Surely you mean trail lawyers...

[Splurgles23]

That generalization rings pretty true, though.

That's a pretty dangerous criterion to use...

A field dominated by wealthy white men has summer events that largely cater to wealthy white men.

Say it ain’t so.

I think you missed my point in your rush to get in a sarcastic comment. If "well that generalization rings pretty true" is the criterion you use when deciding which generalizations are permissible, you're heading into dangerous territory about when it's ok to use generalizations.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

That generalization rings pretty true, though.

That's a pretty dangerous criterion to use...

A field dominated by wealthy white men has summer events that largely cater to wealthy white men.

Say it ain’t so.

I think you missed my point in your rush to get in a sarcastic comment. If "well that generalization rings pretty true" is the criterion you use when deciding which generalizations are permissible, you're heading into dangerous territory about when it's ok to use generalizations.

lol I don’t really care to analyze which generalizations are or are not permissible.