Vinson & Elkins Attorneys Heat Up 'Ridiculous Fun' With Annual Chili Cook-Off

For the first time, Law360 has spotlighted Vinson & Elkins’ annual chili cook-off, celebrating the 25th edition of this tradition with a detailed history of the firm’s chili pastime and how it reflects the firm’s culture. This year, the top honor went to “C-Suite Heat,” a team of Dallas-based executive compensation and benefits lawyers, who triumphed in a spicy showdown to claim the “Statue of Chilerty.”

Below is an excerpt of the article:

The crowd was gathered in Vinson & Elkins LLP’s Dallas office on Friday — with more eagerly watching via a Zoom call known as the “Chili Network” — and David “Chili Bowlman” Oelman was ready to deliver the hotly anticipated news.

“It gives every office a stake in the game, something to rally around, and it’s not just the lawyers — all staff can enter,” Oelman said, adding that the competition unites everyone at the firm in a “fun and ridiculous” way.

The offices hold “regional crockfights” ahead of the final cook-off, and an office’s best team has a shot at winning the “Statute of Chilerty,” a large golden chef that sits atop a wooden pedestal adorned with the names of earlier winners including “Cumin’ Take It,” “Fracking Great Chili,” and “It’s Always Chili In San Francisco.”

For Oelman, his roots in culinary silliness stretch back generations. His great-grandfather, Joseph C. Hutcheson, a Houston lawyer who served in the Texas Legislature and as a U.S. congressman, was the only man to submit a recipe for publication in “The Texas Cook Book, A Thorough Treatise on the Art of Cookery,” which was published in 1883 by the Ladies’ Association of the First Presbyterian Church, Oelman said.

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