Thursday Thoughts with Elizabeth Horton: Revelations of a Chubby Bunny Contestant & Hackathon Winner

This year’s Fennemore Retreat in Las Vegas with chalked full of energy, inspiration and just plain fun.  Elizabeth Horton, Associate, Fennemore Denver a fiercely competitive Chubby Bunny competitor and team Hackathon winner shared her revelations surrounding the Las Vegas Retreat.

Denver

Your team won the Hackathon in Las Vegas.  Can you describe the highlights of your hack-a-thon experience and greatest take-away? 

The highlight of my Hackathon experience was being able to meet and collaborate with colleagues from other Fennemore offices. I had insightful conversations with my team members about how we as a firm can continue to build a strong firm community and foster excellent legal work through innovation.

The greatest take-away I had was that everyone values being able to cross-collaborate not only at the hack-a-thon but also when we return to our respective offices. It was also great to see how much Fennemore values attorney input into its innovation and growth as a firm.

How did your team bring out the best and encourage each member to step out of their daily activities to brainstorm and deliver great solutions?

Right away, everyone on the team was incredibly friendly and enthusiastic about working together. I think this initial energy really helped us have a dynamic start. The team was also very open to people sharing ideas and building off others’ suggestions. I appreciated that the team included attorneys with different experience levels and from different practice areas as this helped each of us offer our own unique insights. We also had a great leader David Sieck, a fellow ELEVATE associate, who helped facilitate the conversation and found ways to incorporate everyone’s ideas. In many ways, the team mirrored what makes Fennemore such a successful firm in that it hires incredible attorneys and staff, has a dynamic C-Suite, and is constantly receiving feedback and implementing ideas that allow us to constantly innovate and become better.

The audience in Las Vegas watched with awe and delight as Chubby Bunny contestant like yourself stuffed their faces in full costume with vim and vigor and of course orange marshmallows.  What did you learn from Chubby Bunny?

In my experience, people’s perception of the legal profession, without having met any attorneys, is that it is cold and buttoned-up. The Chubby Bunny contest is anything but. It’s silly, it’s social, and it’s about putting yourself out there and having no ego about what people may think as you furiously stuffing orange marshmallows in your mouth. I have been privileged to work with brilliant attorneys who are also some of the most caring and most fun people to be around. I was happy to participate because I knew my Denver colleagues would be cheering me on and I also had colleagues from other offices just as excited for and engaged in Chubby Bunny as I was. The Chubby Bunny contest and really the entire Retreat re-iterated to me what a great team I am on as well as the importance of fun and building connections with colleagues outside of day-to-day work.

Hackathon winner and Denver associate Elizabeth Horton (center) thanks crowd and fellow Chubby Bunny contestants Patrick Black (left) and Stacy Porche (right).