Best Prospects for IP Law Forum
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MrWaterhouse
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2017 11:40 pm
Best Prospects for IP Law
I have seen a lot of talk on this forum, as well as other sites, that specialty rankings mean nothing (i.e. Lewis & Clark Environmental Law and the like). Keeping this in mind, I saw that USNWR has various schools within the T14 and T20 having highly ranked IP programs. I am curious as to how much I should take these rankings into consideration when choosing a school with the plan of getting into IP law. Are there any markets that I should be looking into in particular that have robust IP firms, aside from the usual NY Biglaw? How much will school choice matter in these markets? For example, if I were to hypothetically want to work in California, if I couldn't get into Berkeley or Stanford, would pursuing a degree from UCLA make sense? The above example is hypothetical of course, but I hope it illustrates what my question is asking.
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Law2020!
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2017 2:06 pm
Re: Best Prospects for IP Law
You should place almost no emphasis on these speciality rankings. If all else is equal, including cost of attendance, overall ranking, placement in your target market, and overall fit, then you can consider specialty rankings.
There are not specific markets you should look into. Even though Silicon Valley would of course be known to have a strong IP market, pretty much any major legal market will have strong IP firms, so you should focus on where you WANT to practice. However, if you do want to end up in San Francisco, you should not choose UCLA over a T14 simply because it is in the same state. A T14 on the east coast with a national reach will likely do better in San Francisco than UCLA, which is mostly just strong in the LA market.
There are not specific markets you should look into. Even though Silicon Valley would of course be known to have a strong IP market, pretty much any major legal market will have strong IP firms, so you should focus on where you WANT to practice. However, if you do want to end up in San Francisco, you should not choose UCLA over a T14 simply because it is in the same state. A T14 on the east coast with a national reach will likely do better in San Francisco than UCLA, which is mostly just strong in the LA market.
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harveybirdman101
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:00 pm
Re: Best Prospects for IP Law
Another thing to factor in would be the type of IP law you would like to work in. Honestly, if you want to work in tech, I think UCLA would be just fine for either SF or LA, but it would probably be more useful in Los Angeles, because you'll be making more local connections in school, and it appears that the majority of UCLA students stay in LA after graduation.
I took a look at the LinkedIn pages for Tesla's attorneys a while back, and an overwhelming amount of them were UCLA grads. There's also a fast growing tech market in Santa Monica that many people don't take into consideration either. I might be biased though. I love both cities, but LA is wonderful. UCLA basically started the internet fwiw.
I took a look at the LinkedIn pages for Tesla's attorneys a while back, and an overwhelming amount of them were UCLA grads. There's also a fast growing tech market in Santa Monica that many people don't take into consideration either. I might be biased though. I love both cities, but LA is wonderful. UCLA basically started the internet fwiw.
