Summer Associate Scavenger Hunt – Building Relationships Through Collaboration and Play
Client
What the customers say:
"It was a fun bonding experience!"
Challenge
Gunderson Dettmer faces the same recruiting reality every summer: top legal talent has options. Lots of them. Standard presentations and fancy lunches weren't cutting through the noise.
The firm needed summer associates to experience San Francisco the way locals do, not the tourist version. More importantly, they needed these future lawyers to form real connections with each other—the kind that make you want to accept an offer because you can't imagine working anywhere else.
This challenge repeats every summer, which is why Gunderson Dettmer comes back to Handstand year after year.
Handstand Magic
Every summer associate cycle, we build a scavenger hunt that gets the associates out of the office and into San Francisco's best-kept secrets. Teams solve riddles and explore iconic neighborhoods, like North Beach and The Mission, discovering hidden murals, shops, and cultural gems you'd only know about if a local showed you around.
As Gunderson associates bond through shared moments of wrong answers, wins, and laughter, they create genuine friendships (and some inside jokes).
The experience helps answer the question every recruit is actually asking: "Can I see myself here?" After a day exploring SF with people who may become their colleagues, the answer tends to be yes. 🌁😉
Favorite Moments
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