Let's close out the week with one more post about everyone's favorite summer associate scandal: the girl-on-girl kiss that got two summer associates fired from the Minneapolis law firm of Lindquist & Vennum.

Earlier today, we alluded to rumors of "additional lasciviousness" at Lindquist, and now it's time to deliver. We wouldn't want to be accused of being teases.

Now some of you may be getting lesbian kiss fatigue (although some of you may say, "no such thing!!!"). But having received this tip, we can't sit on it, or we'd be accused of giving you only part of the story.

From a tipster (who provided additional identifying information to explain how he's in a position to know this, which we've omitted to preserve his anonymity):

"[The Kiss] happened at a bar with a bunch of summer people after dinner at a partner's house. [One of the summers] was probably just fired as a scapegoat, because that same night [another summer] made out with a married partner. I bet they didn't fire that girl because they were afraid of employment discrimination suits."

Well! All this scandalous talk -- faux-lesbian kisses, orgiastic firm retreats -- is making us blush.

We retract any and all prior remarks suggesting the folks at Lindquist are prudes and squares. To the contrary, it sounds like the place is so buck wild that lesbian lip-action is on the mild side of the spectrum. We are -- involuntarily, mind you -- imagining Nancy Vollertsen dancing on a table.

Okay, this scandal may have run its course; all good things come to an end. But we remain open to corrections, in case we've gotten anything wrong. Feel free to send any info our way, by email (subject line: "Lindquist and Vennum Summer Associate Scandal"). Thanks.

Earlier: Prior coverage of The Kiss (scroll down)

The scandal over The Kiss -- the faux-lesbian smooch between two female summer associates at Lindquist & Vennum that led to their being fired -- continues to reverberate throughout the blogosphere. It has even been picked up by the Minnesota Lawyer Blog, the blog of the Minnesota Lawyer print publication. After sketching out the allegations, editor Mark Cohen writes:

Without more information, it's difficult to know what to make of this. We'll see if the firm has anything it wants to add to what has been reported (and, if so, pass it on to you). I don't want to make too light of the whole thing, as it is obviously no laughing matter to the two law students involved (and please, please, please refrain from posting anything that contains any identifying information). In any event, try as I may, I can't get the refrain from "As time goes by" out of my head -- You must remember this: A kiss is just a kiss.

Some readers criticize Cohen -- who, after all, is a real journalist (we expressly disclaim that title, at least with respect to our ATL work) -- for covering the story. In his defense, he writes:

[T]he question at [this] point becomes is there any value for our blog readers in repeating this watercooler-story as an anecdote sans any identifying information about the associates involved.

I think there is some value for our younger readers who might be first or second year associates. With all the boat cruises, clam bakes and whatnots, it can be easy to forget at times that what you are essentially on is a summer-long job audition. You should behave as such at any firm function -- sanctioned or unsactioned. You can certainly argue whether termination was the appropriate sanction for what happened, but it doesn't appear that everything that happened would have happened if one kept in mind this was a job interview.

We concur. As we wrote in our original post:

Covering the misadventures of summer associates is valuable. When the summer associate is in the wrong, the story is a cautionary tale that educates future summers about what NOT to do. When the firm is in the wrong, the story raises red flags for law students thinking about working for that firm. Either way, additional information is empowering.

In terms of the story itself, as opposed to meta-coverage, we've heard some interesting things through the grapevine and are working on an update (which we expect to post in the afternoon). It seems there may have been additional lasciviousness at Lindquist & Vennum. Who knew midwesterners were so randy?

If you have information you'd like to pass along, please email us (subject line: "Lindquist and Vennum Summer Associate Scandal"). Thanks.

The kiss of death? [Minnesota Lawyer Blog]

Not to us, but to the City Pages of Minneapolis. And it's not much of a response.

(In case you missed yesterday's posts about the drunken girl-on-girl kiss that got two summer associates fired from Lindquist & Vennum, see here and here.)

From the City Pages blog, The Blotter:

Nancy Vollertsen, a partner at Lindquist & Vennum, returned our call. Here's what she had to say:

"We have a great summer program and we don't make employment decisions on a discriminatory basis."

Beyond that, she declined to either confirm or deny what has been written about the alleged firings, citing the privacy of the employees.

We can see why they've put Vollertsen in charge. From her firm bio:

Chair of Lindquist & Vennum's Employment Law Practice Group, Nancy practices primarily in the area of labor and employment law....

Nancy provides counseling to employers on prevention and defense of employment claims and litigation, employment termination, discipline and discharge issues, interpretation and application of various employment laws, and defense of employment discrimination claims.

For more, see the full City Pages post over here.

Scandal: Firm allegedly fires summer associates after drunken lesbian kiss [The Blotter / City Pages]

Here's an update on the two female summer associates we wrote about earlier today. For those of you just tuning in, here's the abridged version of their story: they were fired sometime in the past week by Lindquist & Vennum, the Minneapolis law firm, after getting drunk and kissing each other. For more details, read the original post.

It appears, however, that some of the information in the original post was in error (and we will update the prior post with a link to this post, to set the record straight, if you will). Here are some things we learned in response to our request for more tips:

1. The Kiss did not take place on a boat cruise. Rather, it went down at a social event held after the firm's semi-annual "Partners Dinner" (to which summer associates are usually invited). Said social event / after-party took place at a local watering hole.

2. Lindquist & Vennum does take its summer associates on a boat cruise. But the summers in question are not alleged to have misbehaved on the cruise.

3. As for the extent of The Kiss, "[i]t is unclear whether the girls 'made out' or merely kissed on the lips."

We should hope it was full-on making out, replete with groping. Sure, it's the Midwest, but seriously -- canning two young women because they pecked each other on the lips? Jeez. Can we please move into the 21st century?

4. Sources disagree on whether the firings were based solely on the events of that evening or whether they were premised upon a larger pattern and practice of misbehavior. One source claims that "LV didn't fire them [just] for a little lesbian action."

5. Another source claims, however, that the firm's internal story is that the firings were based just on what happened on the day of The Kiss.

6. But what happened that fateful day allegedly included more than just The Kiss. The women were warned earlier that day that their drinking during firm lunches and other events was excessive. Despite that warning, they allegedly got drunk that same night, culminating in The Kiss.

7. All members of the firm have been told not to comment to anyone about the firings and to forward all requests for information to Nancy Vollertsen.

8. The women are not lesbians (and at least one has a boyfriend).

Cue I Kissed A Girl, by Katy Perry: "I kissed a girl and I liked it / The taste of her cherry chapstick / I kissed a girl just to try it / I hope my boyfriend don't mind it."

9. Both summer associates are "quite attractive."

10. One source claims that the Lindquist firm "has tolerated much more drastic behavior from male associates in the past."

Indeed. We were wondering about a double standard, and it seems that our speculation was not far off the mark.

We do strive for accuracy and completeness, even when reporting events of less-than-cosmic significance, like summer associate stories. If you have corrections to offer or supplementary tidbits to share, please email us (subject line: "Lindquist and Vennum Summer Associate Scandal"). Thanks.

P.S. With respect to the comments, please note that the standard ATL policy applies. Please do not identify these summers by name or provide additional identifying details about them (e.g., law schools).

If you see such a comment made by another poster, please email us (subject line: "Comment Removal Request"), and we will remove the comment (and ban the commenter's IP address from future commenting). Thanks.

Update: Some interesting (and amusing) reactions from the readers of Jezebel. For example:

[M]ost of the big firms care very deeply about their images, including their reputation for diversity. They'd be psyched to have lesbians working for them, as long as they could count them in the diversity spreadsheet as gay. Faux lesbians kissing? Probably not so much.

Further Update: Partner Nancy Vollertsen issued a brief comment to the City Pages of Minneapolis. See here.

Earlier: Summer Associates of the Day: Sapphic Summers in Lesbianic Lip-Lock?

When we recently lamented the lack of summer associate scandals, in the New York Observer, did we speak too soon? Although we may be in the home stretch, law firm summer associate programs are not yet over -- and neither, thankfully, are the salacious tales they generate.

Here's a story we've known about for a while -- it happened late last week -- which has already surfaced elsewhere on the web. We've delayed on reporting about it because we wanted to get more confirmation and give the parties involved a chance to comment.

We reached out to numerous representatives of the firm -- managing partner Daryle Uphoff, chief marketing officer Greg Wolsky, recruiting director Lisanne Weisz, diversity coordinator Nancy Vollertsen -- by phone and by email, yesterday and today. We also contacted the two summers involved, via Facebook message. Nobody has gotten back to us, despite ample time to do so. We'll have to push ahead without them.

Since we've heard the story from multiple sources, all offering generally consistent accounts, we are fairly confident in its accuracy. But if you have any corrections or additions to offer, please email us (subject line: "Lindquist and Vennum Summer Associate Scandal").

Here are some of the versions we heard (many tipsters sent it in):

1. Word through the grapevine is that two female summer associates at Minneapolis firm Lindquist & Vennum were fired recently for getting drunk at a firm event and making out with each other.

2. I'm an associate at a large Minneapolis firm, and word is that two female summer associates at Lindquist & Vennum, another of the large firms in town, got drunk at a summer associate event and were making out with each other. They were fired on Friday.

3. [Two summers at] Lindquist & Vennum were fired over the weekend. Drinking was involved; however, the firm supplied it to them during a boat cruise in 90+ degree weather. Can you get this posted? I want more information.

4. I am a summer associate at a Minneapolis law firm. I can tell that you that two female Lindquist and Vennum summer associates were recently fired (within the last week). I could not tell you for sure why they were fired, but the rumor is that they were drunk at some sort of firm social event (one that had partners present), and started to make out with each other.

And they got fired for this? We're surprised the old-white-male partners didn't cheer them on.

Update / Correction: According to reports received after this post was published, whether the SAs were "making out" or merely kissing on the lips is unclear. Furthermore, the event in question was not the boat cruise, but a post-dinner gathering at a bar. For an update post containing additional information and corrections, see here.

One tipster pointed us to some corroborating evidence:

Lindquist has removed all photos/references of the two from its summer associate section on its website.

This is true. We verified it ourselves, by comparing the current summer associate page, which lists eight summers, to an older version, which lists ten summers. (But please do not post in the comments any links to archived or cached versions of the page.)

You can read more, if you want to -- if you don't, then don't -- after the jump.