Monday, May. 11, 1987

Business Notes OFFICE PARTIES

"I'm indicted to see you all here tonight," quipped Pat McBaine, an executive vice president of Hambrecht & Quist, the San Francisco investment firm. His pun had a certain appropriateness. By way of a theme party, McBaine's company had invited some 600 members of the financial community to share in the unique feeling of being an illegal insider trader. Or almost. The guests were transported by boat to Alcatraz, the inactive island penitentiary in San Francisco Bay. There, while 25 actors dressed as convicts and jail guards capered around them, the temporary inmates supped on roast quail with lime sauce and admired the concrete and steel-bar decor. Estimated cost of the bash: about $100,000. To many, that seemed like something of a crime itself.