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Innovation, most of it electronic, is the name of the game when it comes to recruiting young associates, lateral hires and summer interns.

For a generation brought up on YouTube, Facebook and reality TV, job research is done in front of a computer screen, and firms that want to attract the best and the brightest are realizing they have to reach out to them in their preferred medium.

That’s why Choate Hall & Stewart, a 200-lawyer firm based in Boston, launched a new recruitment page on its website that mimics the look and feel of a YouTube video.

“We decided to take a little bit of a risk,” says Betsy Huntley, the firm’s director of marketing. “We are talking to a population that lives in a very different world, so we decided to produced fast-paced snippets that are more lighthearted, more fun.”

One series of videos consist of four skits of less than a minute each that contrast life at Choate – where everyone works out of the same Boston office – with life at a “Megafirm” with offices spread out all over the world. The skits are humorous in tone, featuring an associate from Choate talking with an associate from “Megafirm” about the drastic differences in their work experiences.

The skits emphasize that associates at Choate, unlike at Megafirm, get meaningful work, have control over the direction of their career and take real vacations.

“The message is that we take our clients seriously, but that doesn’t mean we take ourselves too seriously,” says Huntley.

Another set of videos, targeted towards summer associates, consist of a series of 30-second spots featuring summer associates talking about themselves. Known as the “Red Chair” videos, they are intentionally simple: A red leather chair sits in front of a black background.

Associates walk in, take a seat, and tell a short anecdote about themselves. In one snippet, a young woman describes her undergraduate thesis on horror movies; in another, a young man describes playing music in a Swedish folk trio. The production values are intentionally low to create a feeling of authenticity.

“Our competitors use videos that are very polished. But we had people go in and be themselves,” explains Huntley. “It looks like something you might see on YouTube. The goal is to have the students see these people and say, ‘This is someone I can relate to.’”

Other firms have taken different approaches to electronic recruiting.

Blogs and more

At Foley Hoag in Boston, marketing director Jeff Scalzi wanted to provide law students with a candid view of the firm. In addition to YouTube-like videos of summer associates, the firm’s website includes blog posts on their experiences throughout their summer with the firm.

“These are unfiltered and unedited,” notes Scalzi, “so they are particularly interesting to students.”

Lowenstein Sandler, a 275-attorney firm based in New Jersey, recently created a sophisticated six-minute video introducing the firm to prospective associates. In contrast to Choate’s YouTube look, Lowenstein created a tightly edited presentation of partners, summer associates and lateral hires talking about what is special about working at the firm.

The firm’s recruiting page, titled “Opportunity Knocks,” features a series of five doors labeled “summer associates,” “new attorneys,” “lateral attorneys,” “paralegals” and “staff.” Viewers open the appropriate door with a mouse click and are taken to a page with a brief written description of what the firm has to offer, supplemented by video clips featuring interviews with people who are currently working in that capacity.

“Video shows a level of enthusiasm that you can’t convey through words and pictures,” says Nick San Filippo, a partner in corporate department and vice chairman of the firm’s recruitment committee. “It provides a taste for the personality and energy of the firm.”

In Cleveland, Benesch Friedlander, an international business law firm, is using podcasts to reach out to law students. Initially, the firm used podcasts exclusively to attract and retain clients, but soon realized new media had become an essential tool in recruiting new talent.

“When students see we’re tech-savvy enough to recruit by podcasting – that we’re not one of those old fuddy-duddy firms that do the same thing year after year – it makes an impression,” says Julie Gurney, marketing manager at the firm.

The video interviews have been well received by law students who appreciate the opportunity to hear directly from summer associates what their experiences were like without having to do all the foot work to track down and interview them.

“It seems like there’s a higher level of interest from a higher level of students,” says Kevin Margolis, chair of the firm’s hiring committee. “It’s a newer, hipper, lack-of-stuffiness factor. I think a lot of law students find that appealing.”

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