2013 PLIP Stats wrote:Registered: ~1250;
Students w/ at least ONE interview: ~650
Results from TLSers
(GPA/Rank @ time of bidding, School, UG Degree, Pre-Select, Alts., Target Market, Work Experience)
3.59/Top 10%, T10, ChemE/BioChem/Chem, 13 PS, 6 Alt, CA, WE=0, addt'l info: 2/2 preselects on resume drops at 3.71
3.12/Top 50%, T1, BSME magna cum laude, 4 PS, 1 Alt, NYC/DC
T14, EE, 26 PS, 3 Alt
Top 5%, T1, B.S. Chem, 16 PS, 5 Alt, >5 yrs WE in pharma, NYC target (got a few firmwide, a few Chicago, one Palo Alto and my alts were Chicago and Palo Alto/San Fran)
Top 25%, T95, MSEE, 14 PS, 2 Alt., 8 years WE
Top 10% at T25. ChemE., 16 PS, 3 A, 4 years WE
Top 5-10%, T20, NO TECH DEGREE, 18 PS, 6 A, 4 years WE
Median, T14, BSME, 7 PS, 7 A, NYC , 2 yrs. WE non-tech
Top 25%, T14, CS, 26 PS, 2 Alt, >5 yrs WE, targeting SF
Below Median, T140s, MechE, 2PS, 2Alt, West Coast/ NY/DC (Pros. Only), 2yr WE prestigious engineering firm
3.4/Top 50% - Top 33%, T25, Life Sciences, 5 PS, 6A, NY/DC/PA
Top 10%, T14, ECE/CS , 24 PS, 1 A, 10+ yrs. WE, NY/DC
3.78, TTTT, Physics, 5 PS, 5 Alt., Target Midwest (Chicago, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan)
2.8, T10, Bio, 6 PS, 2 A, have some comp science WE.
Top 25%, TTTT, Half of a CS degree (gpa 3.7) that I've been getting during LS, 8 PS
*****If you have any link, information, or experience that you want added to the OP, then feel free to PM it to me.*****Past Questions from Interviewers at PLIP wrote: I was once asked: "In a patent litigation, if there is a term in dispute and the parties cannot agree on its meaning, what is the primary source to use for interpretation?" I think that question is pretty hard for a rising 2L. The answer is the specification.
Another question that can trip you up involves details about your undergraduate institution, especially relating to sports (if it had a D1 program). Just be sure that if your program had something that made the national news, you can speak intelligibly about it.
Another guy said to me, first thing when I walked in: "Listen, you're qualified for this job, but so are the last 10 people I just spoke to. So give me a good reason I should hire you."
But the worst one I ever got was, first thing sitting down with the interviewer: "So, do you have any questions for me?" THAT was tough, because it was totally unexpected. So, make sure you have intelligent questions to ask (tailored to that firm, not generic).
Tell me about yourself?
Why did you go to law school?
Why are you interested in patent law/IP?
Patent prosecution or patent litigation?
Why are you interested in our firm?
Which office are you interested in?
Where are you from?
What other firms/cities are you applying to?
Are you willing to go to this other city you have never considered before simply because we need patent people there?
What did you like about your undergraduate degree?
Tell me about your undergraduate science research?
What questions do you have for us?
One firm terrified me with these: Describe to me an engineering problem you faced in your pre-law job and how you solved it. Answer this simple engineering question.
{to a former grad student} - Why law school now? Why did you not go through the technical specialist route? Why did you not want to stay in [field]?
Why are you interested in working in [city]? (I interviewed with firms from NYC, DC, and Boston, but only the Boston firms asked me this. They seem to want people who really want to live in Boston for a particular reason or have ties to the city. I have absolutely no ties, so I had to come up with some really specific reasons for wanting to live/work there.)
***if I have quoted you from another thread and want it removed, PM me***
Website: http://www.luc.edu/law/career/patent_students.html
Dates: Thursday, August 1 & Friday, August 2, 2013
Location: Chicago Embassy
Participating Employers 2012
IMPORTANT DATES FOR STUDENTS
Monday, March 4 Deadline for Student Registration
Monday, April 15 Students receive Symplicity passwords/bidding instructions
Tuesday, April 16 Student Bidding Begins
Thursday, May 2 Deadline for Student Bidding
Monday, June 24 Initial interview schedules available on Symplicity
Monday, June 24 - Wednesday, June 26 Interview Cancellation Period
Friday, June 28 Final Schedules available on Symplicity
Thursday, August 1 & Friday, August 2 2013 Patent Law Interview Program
Some typical questions/experiences that we would appreciate past PLIP Allstars sharing:
1) I am planning on transferring, how does that play out during the process?
2) I have ____ degree and ____ years WE and bid _______ and did well.
3) My GPA was not stellar but I did ____________ and was able to succeed
4) I have WE in the IT field but am not patbar eligible due to my UG degree; however, I was able to get interviews by doing __________
5) My LS was a T6,T14,T20,T50 and my GPA was _____ and I was able to secure ________
6) How did you approach the bidding process? How do you recommend we bid?
7) These firms ____________ look for _______ and __________ the most so be prepared for questions about ___________
8 ) Does it matter if I make my bids on day one versus making/changing bids on the last day to make bids? will the bids placed near the closing of bidding place me at a disadvantage?
9) The attorneys at __________firm really cared about XYZ but did not care so much about DEF
10) I was able to do ______________ while at PLIP and scored ## of extra interviews
----------------------------
From what I gather, bidding appropriately can have an impact. Obviously, nothing is guaranteed; however, getting our bidding strategies planned out, resume's polished, and PLIP questions answered early, can help alleviate the stress of this process. I have read that some firms receive 1300+ bids for 20-40 interview slots we must plan accordingly.
Useful Links
Patents:
Avery Index
DC's Top IP Lawyers 2011-12
IP Today's 2012 Top Patent Firms
The Patent Scorecard 2011
Law.com's 2011 Patent Litigation Survey
Managing Intellectual Property's Patent Survey 2012
Chambers Partners - Chambers Global > USA, Intellectual Property
Chambers Partners - Chambers USA > Intellectual Property (slightly different than the above)
Chambers Associate > Intellectual Property
2013 Vault Firm Rankings Intellectual Property
2013 Vault IP Boutiques
Overall:
2013 Vault Law 100
Law.com's The Associates Survey
ATL Career Center
Judged.com (nothing on most firms, but I occasionally find something helpful here)[/quote]
Other good OCI, employment links from TLSers that are useful
A guide to OCI callbacks - a great thread about the OCI process
"network like crazy at OCI" - What does this mean? - a great thread about hustling a jerb at OCI
Past PLIP Threads
Loyola Patent Fair 2012
Loyola PLIP thread for 2011
Interview Help, Tips, and Suggestions
Last week, I spoke with a recruiter at a V25 firm (office on west coast) specifically about resumes (about IP law in general, not just PLIP resumes) and what they look for. Here is what she told me based on her own experience reviewing resumes for her firm... essentially, what people have done in the past that can make your resume land in the "NO" pile.
Note: she says that by the time its all done, 2 recruiters + another 5 attorney's will have looked at the resume and, she said "they are all trained to catch mistakes."
1) do not use color in your resume
2) do not include a picture of yourself
3) do include all contact information: name, address, phone, email (make sure the email is correct. once, she sent an email for a grade request and got a bounceback reply. she decided it was not worth it to hunt the guy down to contact him and thus placed him in the "NO" pile)
4) if you transferred, include your 1L school on the resume (they do not like playing detective, and appreciate your being strait forward)
5) make sure resume is uniform: periods at the end of sentences, correct tense, good use of white space
6) do not make typographical errors!
7) interests section at the bottom is fine
8 ) do not bury important things/ details in the middle of the page... it may not get read
Sample Bid Strategies
stratocophic wrote: Priority bids IMO (not in order):
-Firms with very large IP departments
-Firms in cities you have ties to
-Firms in your law school's city/that have lots of associates from your school
-Firms that specialize in your tech background (e.g. Fitzpatrick for bio people, west coast firms for EE/CompSci)
-Firms you just happen to like, for whatever arbitrary reason
-Elite firms/boutiques like Kirkland, Covington, Finnegan/Fish/Fitzpatrick for people with very good grades
-More standard boutiques like all of the Chicago "M" firms (it's uncanny how many of their names start with that letter) for people with worse grades but strong tech backgrounds
Do your research on NALP, firm sites, and Chambers to get a flavor for what firms are all about, what type of IP they handle (both w/r/t technical discipline and which of transactional/prosecution/litigation they do) and where they have locations. That'll allow you to maximize your chances at getting (m)any interviews.
Don't throw a hail mary at somewhere like WilmerHale or Kirkland if you're median at a T2, don't bid on a firm whose website suggests that they do nothing but bio if you're a mechanical/civil engineer, don't bid on a firm in say Seattle or Charlotte (for example) if you've never set foot in the city and have sub-top10% grades with nothing on your resume to suggest a connection to the city and/or region. Common sense will take you a long way in bidding successfully.
Advicestratocophic wrote:Competition's fierce, and research online/info from your CSO re: who has gotten offers and interviews in the past are going to be more valuable for an individual than any advice anyone can here give. Don't skimp on the research.
patentlaworbust wrote:Another piece of advice from personal experience:
You should still apply directly to the firms that reject you at PLIP within a couple weeks of the program. It is important to remember that these firms need to select from hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes for what may be less than 50 interview slots. People will slip through the cracks, get overlooked, or get passed over simply because it isn't possible to interview anyone else. Although resume credentials are a good first indicator of employability, they are far from the end-all be-all. Firms may only come away from PLIP with a small handful of candidates worthy of a CB. If you didn't make the "first cut", you're not dead in the water.
I was not preselected or given an alternate slot for a V100 at PLIP. I applied independently via Email to the firm's recruiter and I got a very personal reply back, telling me: They were sorry they didn't get a chance to interview with me at PLIP, but they would be very interested in interviewing me. I set up a phone interview with them later that week.
stratocophic wrote:Yep. Here are two easy ways to to that.jarak01 wrote:This might be a dumb question, but when looking for firms with an office in the area that I want, I can search by State, but then also there are "firmwide" ones-- do I then have to research the firms to determine where these firmwide locations are?
1) Their website will have a list of their offices, and you can then go through that office to see who is in the IP group. Alternatively, look at the IP group on their practice group page - most firms will list attorneys alphabetically rather than by location, but the page will usually also state which office they work in.
2) Search the firm on NALP. This will give you office locations (though not always all of them, so be careful) and also tell you how many associates/partners do IP in that office (this is sometimes inaccurate due to discrepancies in how firms classify people).
I will continue to make updates as I find more useful information.