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Firms on Film: McInnes Cooper Uses YouTube to Hook Potential Recruits

Want to reach the YouTube generation? Take it online.

More from CBA PracticeLink and National For more articles and tips on recruiting and retaining Canada's top young legal talent, check out the CBA PracticeLink supplement produced in coordination with the March 2008 issue of National. cba.org/practicelink/retention

From the slickly humorous, agency-produced “Choate vs. Megafirm” ads promoting New York’s Choate, Hall & Stewart, to the more straight-laced interview clips of associates at Boston’s Ropes & Gray talking about work, clients, and the team approach, the legal sector is slowly beginning to take advantage of streaming media to recruit the current crop of law school students.

In Canada, McInnes Cooper was one of the first firms to take the plunge. Its five-minute video, posted in October 2007, follows students and lawyers to court, client meetings, and receptions, as well as to the hockey rink, on a charity run, and on the annual student whitewater rafting excursion. There are even shots of lawyers getting down and dirty as they play with their toddlers.

“We wanted the video to convey what McInnes Cooper is all about,” explains Tara Erskine, an employment law partner and the manager of legal human resources. “You can really convey a lot about the energy of the firm and all the people that make up the firm much more than you could through a static text content.”

To make it happen, she turned to two law students summering at the firm and gave them complete creative freedom. Mark Purdy and Kate Mullan — who boast impressive film credentials in addition to their legal training — squeezed the project into evenings and weekends over the course of several months.

The result is a student-eye view of McInnes Cooper, edited to the funky beat of a local Halifax band. To hook viewers, Purdy and Mullan bookended the video with a lighter take on the interview process that features a carefully dressed candidate, a large puddle, and a hairdryer. (You’ll have to watch the video to see what we mean.)

As far as McInnes Cooper is concerned, the video hit the mark. “I don’t think an outside agency could have done a better job,” says Erskine. In just over a month, it attracted 5,000 hits on YouTube and the firm’s site and garnered positive comments on several blogs. Most tellingly, every student Erskine encounters in the recruiting process has commented on it.

Purdy, now an articled clerk at the firm, hopes that the concept of online recruitment videos will catch on. The more information students get about a firm, the easier it is to make the right choice, he says — and you can’t beat the convenience of video at the click of a mouse.  “The picture’s worth a thousand words,” he says.

Julie Stauffer