BigLaw pranksters
A lawyer at US firm Jenner & Block has taken workplace fundraising to rather colourful new heights, filling a colleague’s office with 25,000 plastic balls after lawyers smashed a charity donation target.
The elaborate prank was the brainchild of managing partner Lindsay Harrison (pictured top) who promised colleagues that if the firm’s Washington DC office beat last year’s fundraising total for Legal Aid DC, they would transform fellow lawyer Matt Klapper’s office into a giant ball pit. And, unfortunately for Klapper’s carefully maintained workspace, colleagues delivered.
The office raised $73,820 (£55,000) for Legal Aid DC, comfortably surpassing last year’s total of around $54,000 and setting a new record for Jenner’s DC base.
“Enter Project Ball Pit,” Harrison wrote on LinkedIn, explaining that a straightforward matching incentive simply wasn’t enough to get the competitive juices flowing.
The challenge also offered an opportunity for a spot of office revenge, with Harrison revealing that Klapper had previously pulled an April Fools’ Day prank on colleagues. “Why not raise money for a deserving organisation while ALSO getting payback at Matt Klapper,” the post reads.
With the fundraising target smashed, the lawyer duly followed through on the promise, spending the weekend with their family turning Klapper’s “impeccable place of business into a child’s ball pit fever dream”. Pictures accompanying the post show the sizeable office buried beneath thousands of brightly coloured balls, with around 50 beach balls apparently thrown in for good measure.
There is, however, one outstanding issue: what exactly does one do with 25,000 plastic balls once the prank is over? The lawyer has already turned to LinkedIn for answers, writing: “If anyone on LinkedIn has a need for 25,000 balls (plus about 50 beach balls), my DMs are open.”