We aren't the only ones having fun with the story of the Quinn Emanuel recruiting junket to Deer Valley. Check out this cartoon, over at The Recorder.

As noted by some commenters, Quinn Emanuel just launched a new, upgraded website. Sadly, the "Day in a Life of an Associate" video -- which featured a fictional associate, a Yale and Stanford Law-educated hottie named "Ivy" (geddit?) -- appears to have been pulled. (The site says that the video is "coming soon.")

Some of the speculation about why the video was pulled is amusing. Check it out, after the jump.

Has Quinn Emanuel's unorthodox approach to the callback process ruffled some feathers? Maybe. Why does the firm brass keep on sending out emails about it?

Last Thursday, firm founder John Quinn sent out this email. Then, on Friday, name partner Bill Urquhart chimed in:

From: "A William Urquhart"
To: "Attorneys"
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:38:28 -0700
Subject:

We have received several questions about the recruiting weekend at Deer Valley. Here are some answers.

Question: Who is attending the weekend?

Answer: There will be approximately 20 lawyers from the firm--both associates and partners. There will be lawyers from all the firm's four offices.. There will be law students from Texas, Chicago, Harvard and Yale. All of them will have received call backs. As you know, the vast majority of those students invited back to our offices receive offers. If the on campus interview processes operates as intended, this number should be close to 100% because nobody should be invited back unless they meet our minimum objective standards. They should also have met our more subjective standards.

Question: How did you choose these schools?

Answer: These were the schools whose interviews were late in the recruiting season. If this experiment is successful, we may decide to have two such events next year--one in late September for the students of the schools which schedule interviews early (e.g. Columbia, Stanford, U Va, NYU, etc.).

More discussion, after the jump.

Here's a follow-up to yesterday's post about Quinn Emanuel's innovative approach to callback interviews:

From: "John Quinn"
To: "Attorneys"
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:46:53 -0700
Subject:

reproduced below is an email which we sent yesterday to chicago students who received call backs. it describes an experiment we are going to try this year with the call backs from law schools whose on campus interviews are late in the season (chicago, yale, harvard and texas). instead of having them come back to the firm for interviews, we are inviting them to come to a weekend at a resort in utah. aside from attempting to distinguish ourselves from other law firms, the reasons for trying this are described in the email below. we think those reasons are compelling. however, the proof will be in the pudding.

we have a limited amount of space available for students, partners and associates. we can not invite everyone we would like to. certain of you will be invited to attend the weekend. the invitations will be sent out shortly.

[Aaron Charney is very upset he wasn't invited. Expect to hear from his lawyers shortly.]

the recruitment weekend has generated a lot of buzz on some law blogs already. you may be asked questions by the students who will be coming through the office in the next few weeks. please tell them that this is an experiment. if it is successful, we may decide to expand it next year to two events. also, please be sure to state that the firm will be absorbing all expenses associated with the weekend.

We should hope so. As one commenter noted, "Why Deer Valley in the summer? That's like going to Vermont in March to see the leaves changing." What sane law student would shell out his own dough to schlep out to Utah this time of year -- other than, say, someone applying to clerk for Judge Michael McConnell (10th Cir.)? (Actually, we hear that Judge McConnell might come out to the East Coast to interview clerkship applicants.)

Anyway, the email sent to the Quinn Emanuel callback-ees appears after the jump.

The fall recruiting process. Some firms mess things up; some firms live it up.

We're hearing through the grapevine that this year, for students at schools with late on-campus interview weeks, Quinn Emanuel isn't doing the whole callbacks-at-their-offices thing. Instead, they're inviting the students they like in the on-campus interviews on a weekend trip at a resort in Deer Valley, Utah, to get a better feel for the firm and its attorneys.

Apparently former Stanford dean Kathleen Sullivan will be on the trip, to make a pitch to the students. There will also be DVDs with virtual tours of the offices, in case some interviewees want to know what their office would look like if they chose to work there.

It appears that Quinn is trying this out as a pilot program this year, with the late OCI schools (e.g., Harvard, Chicago, Yale). If it works well, then they might expand its use.

This strikes us as a cool and fabulous junket. But on the other hand, maybe people wouldn't want to spend this much time on an extended callback. Thoughts?

Update: More details about the experiment are available here.

Yesterday we wrote about Paulina Bandy, that poor creature who failed the California bar exam thirteen times, before finally passing it on try #14. Her story seems to have freaked out some of you who are sitting for the bar exam later this month next week.

Relax. Take a deep breath. You won't wind up in a 365-square-foot shack in your mom's backyard. We think.

Chances are, you will pass. And even if you fail the bar once or twice, you're still not on your way towards Paulina Bandy-dom.

As it turns out, a number of well-known individuals -- some famous for their accomplishments in law, and others for different reasons -- didn't pass the bar on the first (or even second) try.

To get the ball rolling, here's a short list of a few bar exam failures. Check it out, after the jump.