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I was wondering, if you are a Patent Agent with a degree in Electrical Engineering, how important will your law school be in regards to future employment? Basically, if I were to go to a T1 regional school with a full ride instead of a T14 at sticker, would that really hinder me from getting a job as an attorney in patent litigation or intellectual property law?

penncon wrote:I was wondering, if you are a Patent Agent with a degree in Electrical Engineering, how important will your law school be in regards to future employment? Basically, if I were to go to a T1 regional school with a full ride instead of a T14 at sticker, would that really hinder me from getting a job as an attorney in patent litigation or intellectual property law?

A little bit but not 200k worth. For prosecution, I'm not sure but I suspect it won't hurt all that much at all.

It depends on whether or not you want to do prosecution. If you are solely interested in patent lit, the school will probably matter a bit more because litigation places tend to be more prestige whorey. But if you are wanting to do prosecution I would say take the T1 for sure. Prosecution jobs care about the fact that you're an EE, not about what school you went to. As long as you are interested in practicing in the region of the T1 school for a few years after you graduate I wouldn't even consider paying $150,000 to go to a T14, you are just wasting money.

A lot of boutiques that primarily do prosecution have a decent amount of litigation work too. Those places are extremely unlikely to care at all about what school you went to, and you should be able to do a decent amount of lit work.

Desert Fox wrote:

penncon wrote:I was wondering, if you are a Patent Agent with a degree in Electrical Engineering, how important will your law school be in regards to future employment? Basically, if I were to go to a T1 regional school with a full ride instead of a T14 at sticker, would that really hinder me from getting a job as an attorney in patent litigation or intellectual property law?

A little bit but not 200k worth. For prosecution, I'm not sure but I suspect it won't hurt all that much at all.

Might have some impact with prosecution, but not much. At least I didn't notice any. I took $ over prestige. That being said, not all T1s are created equal. Some small law schools aren't located near any decent markets.

Another issue is even if you WANT IP lit, it's objectively the wrong choice for 200k more of debt. You are pretty much guaranteed a prosecution job no matter where you go in the T1.

Desert Fox wrote:Another issue is even if you WANT IP lit, it's objectively the wrong choice for 200k more of debt. You are pretty much guaranteed a prosecution job no matter where you go in the T1.

Fox, I'm sorry if I sound clueless but when you mentioned "guaranteed a prosecution job no matter," are you saying I would be guaranteed a six-figure salary at most firms?

Thank you guys for the invaluable information.

penncon wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:Another issue is even if you WANT IP lit, it's objectively the wrong choice for 200k more of debt. You are pretty much guaranteed a prosecution job no matter where you go in the T1.

Fox, I'm sorry if I sound clueless but when you mentioned "guaranteed a prosecution job no matter," are you saying I would be guaranteed a six-figure salary at most firms?

Thank you guys for the invaluable information.

You do patent prosecution right now right?

if you are a Patent Agent with a degree in Electrical Engineering

Were I working as a patent agent with a EE degree, I would generally be disinclined to attend law school at all.

Dr. Review wrote:Were I working as a patent agent with a EE degree, I would generally be disinclined to attend law school at all.

Were you working as a patent agent with an EE degree, you'd know how much money you'd be leaving on the table by not getting a JD.

Most of the 1Ls who are IP I know are going to firms this summer at my regional. I'd take the money and run, because I think that IPSecure is unlikely to be continuing much longer, and knowing that if you screw up and can't get something at least you aren't in debt.