U.S. law firms are using recruiting Web sites with YouTube-inspired layouts and videos to appeal to the younger crowd of prospective summer associates. The videos range from professional-looking ads featuring actors to videos that feature company employees speaking about the firm's expertise or its diversity, The New York Times reported Friday. "The videos are still kind of in the early days," said Brian Dalton, the senior law editor at Vault Reports, which ranks law firms. "A lot of them come off seeming like hostage videos."

A series of videos created by Boston law firm Choate Hall & Stewart echoes the "Mac vs. PC" ads created by Apple. The video series, called "Choate vs. Megafirm," features a frustrated Megafirm employee complaining about his firm, while a self-assured Choate employee sings her employer's praises.

However, sometimes law firms recognize when their attempts to be hip go too far. Los Angeles firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges pulled a video from their Web site before it even went live. The video, titled "A Day in the Life of an Associate," followed a jeans-wearing associate named Ivey who plays Ultimate Frisbee in between meetings with partners.

"Some of the associates, some of the partners, thought it was too contrived; maybe corny was probably a better word," said A. William Urquhart, the firm’s hiring partner.