What's Up With That Deer Valley Trip? Quinn Emanuel Partners Speak
We've devoted an insane amount of coverage to Quinn Emanuel's plan to take recruits to a resort in Deer Valley, Utah (in lieu of callbacks). Now The Recorder has this interesting article:
Instead of bringing students met during on-campus interviews back to the office for a series of sit-downs, the firm will take them on the road. Quinn Emanuel is arranging an all-expenses-paid October weekend of dining and drinks in Deer Valley, Utah, for about 40 students. They'll stay at the Stein Eriksen Lodge, a Scandinavian-inspired chalet where a suite runs more than $2,000 a night in peak season."We stole the idea from an investment bank -- I don't think any law firm has tried it," said firm leader William Urquhart.
Reporter Kellie Schmitt confronted Quinn Emanuel partners with some choice comments from ATL readers. Learn about their reactions, after the jump.
There are actually multiple shout-outs to ATL in Schmitt's piece:
Reaction [to the Quinn Emanuel proposal] was swift, with some posters at the Above the Law blog panning it as a hellish three-day job interview, and others praising it as an opportunity to get to know a prospective firm's key people a bit better....In his signature lower-case style, Quinn sent a firmwide e-mail Sept. 13 explaining the plan to attorneys who might field inquiries: "please tell them that this is an experiment. if it is successful, we may decide to expand it next year to two events."
Reactions posted at Above the Law were mixed, with some saying Quinn was trying too hard to be different, and others unsure of what to make of the event: "It's either going to be a 72-hour interview (which sucks), or pretty much anyone invited has an offer for the summer, assuming they don't do anything stupid."
Other posters questioned the timing: "Going at the end of October, when it's snowing and cold yet not quite ski season, is absurd."
That's just sour grapes, Urquhart said: "The ones who are invited love the idea, and the ones who weren't have been posting all kinds of negative comments on messageboards."
We're glad that Bill Urquhart doesn't take ATL comments personally. We certainly don't.
Here are the results of the ATL reader poll, which is probably a better guide to reader sentiment than the comments (since more people voted in the poll then commented on the coverage, and the commenters tend to be disproportionately snarky). Despite the harsh comments from the peanut gallery, the poll shows that those who favor or are at least open to the idea narrowly outnumber those who don't like it:
Quinn Emanuel to Try Out 72-Hour Interview [The Recorder]
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Quinn Emanuel (scroll down)
Comments
first
Posted by: anon | September 21, 2007 03:25 PM
lol at the idea that everyone who made fun of this is just pissed that they weren't invited.
(note, just because this post is in his signature lower-case style does not mean this is j. quinn.)
also, does urquhart really expect those who were invited to tell them that they hate the idea? if everyone who wasn't invited - and therefore isn't trying to get a job from quinn - is posting "negative comments," maybe the idea just sucks.
in general, just lol at quinn. for some reason i still like them, though. i was opposite them in a case for a little bit and thought they were pretty good lawyers.
Posted by: anon | September 21, 2007 03:30 PM
Must be alot of jews on ATL- posts are way down it seems.
Posted by: Happy Holidays to My Hebrew Brethren | September 21, 2007 03:40 PM
i doubt a single post on ATL was from a jilted QUINN candidate. URQUHART doesn't seem very familiar with the ebays.
Posted by: suspect is hatless | September 21, 2007 03:41 PM
Wow, all the hellacious pressure of an interview stretched over 72 terrible, terrible hours. Sounds torture-tastic!
Posted by: JJ | September 21, 2007 03:45 PM
" 'We stole the idea from an investment bank -- I don't think any law firm has tried it,' said firm leader William Urquhart."
Back in the late 1990s, the now defunct, 400 attorney SF law firm Graham & James used to fly prospective summer associates to Park City Utah for a three-day weekend of skiing, snow mobile riding, boozing and schmoozing.
Posted by: Park City Summer Associate | September 21, 2007 04:05 PM
Yeah, Lat, we know you (plural) don't take ATL comments seriously. The WSJ Law Blog did a story on that earlier this week.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 21, 2007 04:11 PM
I'm a QE associate that wasn't invited- the people who got invited are the same associates who do 99% of our recruiting and .001% of our actual work.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 21, 2007 04:34 PM
Weren't there something like 20 associates going? Man...QE must dump *a lot* of money into recruiting if it pays those 20 people to do .001% actual work.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 21, 2007 06:12 PM
I don't know if Munger still does it, but after people accepted their summer offers, they would take out the upcoming summer class on a ski trip sometime in February or around there.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 21, 2007 07:11 PM
In the fall of 1992, Bickel & Brewer took over a dozen 2Ls to the Cowboys' locker-room and field in Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas for a combination firm dinner/throwing-a-football-around event on a Friday night, and then held a mass in-office interview that Saturday morning.
Posted by: Ted Frank | September 21, 2007 07:30 PM
Here's why this is such a good idea.... think about how much more opportunity this creates for great storiese to be posted on ATL abou the summer interviewee who cracks and goes haywire, or the middle aged partner who sleeps with an inerviewee... or ... and on and on...
Please, please someone go balistically drunk after the first 24 hours and make sure everyone here hears about it!
Ask yourself, dear intreviewees.. do YOU have what it takes to be the next aquagirl?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 21, 2007 07:50 PM
LAT -- WHERE IS THE NEW QE VIDEO OF A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A QE ASSOCIATE? WHY ARE YOU NOT ALL OVER THEIR NEW WEBSITE?
Posted by: CURIOUS | September 21, 2007 08:00 PM
For those of you whose computer is accessing an old DNS entry for http://www.quinnemanuel.com/ and is still getting their old website, try http://72.32.196.51/ and you will get Quinn's new website with the "Life of a QE Associate" video noted above by CURIOUS.
FYI, DNS updates can take a few days. If you don't know what a DNS is... basically, it's an online dictionary that can be updated that maps names (eg, quinnemanuel.com) to IP addresses (eg, 72.32.196.51).
Posted by: Internet Delay | September 21, 2007 09:24 PM
For those of you whose computer is accessing an old DNS entry for http://www.quinnemanuel.com/ and is still getting their old website, try http://72.32.196.51/ and you will get Quinn's new website with the "Life of a QE Associate" video noted above by CURIOUS.
FYI, DNS updates can take a few days. If you don't know what a DNS is... basically, it's an online dictionary that can be updated that maps names (eg, quinnemanuel.com) to IP addresses (eg, 72.32.196.51).
Posted by: Internet Delay | September 21, 2007 09:26 PM
I just hope they get to enjoy the brunch at Deer Valley. Mmmm . . . Deer Valley brunch . . .
Posted by: Jealous | September 21, 2007 11:02 PM
Munger, Tolles, and Olson has taken its new summers (before they start) for Utah skiing. Except they do it when it's snowing, and there's no pressure to impress, since they've already got the job. Why do firms always think they're the first to do something? Just raise salaries.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 22, 2007 12:32 AM
Where is the reference to the obvious? Groping.
Posted by: Al Groper | September 22, 2007 12:45 AM
How does this idea suck? God you people are miserable. I would be stoked to have been taken on some sweet weeked trip for an interview, regardless of whether I got the job.
Posted by: Richie Cunningham | September 22, 2007 10:41 AM
This story was really interesting the first six times I read it. Or am I stuck in some kind of space-time warp where nothing ever changes on ATL but the rest of the universe continues as normal?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 22, 2007 12:39 PM
So, seriously, this is about sleeping with interviewees, right?
Posted by: Anon | September 23, 2007 02:18 AM
"'We stole the idea from an investment bank -- I don't think any law firm has tried it,' said firm leader William Urquhart."
Diamond McCarthy LLP, a Texas-based litigation boutique, has held similar recruiting events over the past several years. This year, the firm is taking recruits to the Ritz-Carlton at Lake Las Vegas.
Posted by: Eric Madden | September 24, 2007 09:57 AM
best part of the trip will be kathleen sullivan's seminar on how to pass the bar in just two tries.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 24, 2007 11:52 AM
Nice try Eric Madden, but I think Bill was talking about a real firm not a podunk Texas outfit that hires Kansas J.D.s and makes them "partner" after three years.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 24, 2007 11:57 AM
For the record, I am not a law student applying to Quinn Emanuel. And I think this is a terrible idea: It segregates associates, segregates summers, and doesn't sound like fun.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 24, 2007 03:16 PM
Lets just say that there is a '72-hour job interview' quality to this thing. Fact of the matter is, that what call backs are anyways. I was in one call back after another, through dinner, for 4 days (and some nights) in a row. And I was not getting presentations or going on hot air balloon. I was getting grilled on why I wanted to work there. Truth is, a litigator should be ready at all times to talk shop because its not that hard. Investment bankers do the 72 hour interview why not us? Intense? yes. uncalled for? no.
Posted by: just me | September 24, 2007 07:14 PM