Bachelor degree required? Forum

[Phillypharm]

Hello,
I’m finishing my pharmd this semester and thinking about applying to law school. I fell in love with patent law when I interned at a pharmaceutical company and shadowed some of the patent attorneys. The only problem is that I don’t have a bachelors degree. I only did three years of undergrad to finish pharmacy pre reqs and went straight into pharmacy. So my question is will I be even eligible to apply to law school with my pharmd(doctorate degree) without a bachelors degree.

[dvlthndr]

I think you are asking the wrong question. You should be fine applying to law school if you graduated from "undergrad" early, but I suggest talking to the patent attorneys from your internship about your plans.

Odds are that these guys were doing patent prosecution (i.e., dealing with inventors, writing new patents, and working with the patent office), as opposed to patent transactions or patent litigation. This is a very different career path than the average lawyer, and there are a couple things you should know.

First, prosecution requires you to get registered with the USPTO. You can learn more about registration here, and the general bulletin with the requirements can be found here. You don't have the right kind of undergraduate degree, but you can still take the exam if you have taken an equivalent number of classes in the hard sciences. You can check out the bulletin and read the fine print, but the gist is that you need to satisfy one of the following:

i. Option 1: 24 semester hours in physics. Only physics courses for physics majors will be accepted.

ii.Option 2: 32 semester hours in a combination consisting of the following: 8 semester hours of chemistry or 8 semester hours of physics, and 24 semester hours in biology, botany, microbiology, or molecular biology.

...

iii. Option 3: 30 semester hours in chemistry. Only chemistry courses for chemistry majors will be accepted.

iv. Option 4: 40 semester hours in a combination consisting of the following: 8 semester hours of chemistry or 8 semester hours of physics, and 32 semester hours of chemistry, physics, biology, botany, microbiology, molecular biology, or engineering. (For Computer Science, see other acceptable course work.)

Second, many patent prosecutors work for a law firm before going to law school. They usually start as a patent agent or some kind of "technical specialist/advisor" (basically a patent agent in training). These jobs give you a taste for what the work is like, and many of these firms will pay for your school if you agree to continue working part time. This can change the financial calculus about attending school, and its a niche area of the law where the normal assumptions about school rankings, working in big-law, long-term career prospects, etc., don't always hold.

[Phillypharm]

I think you are asking the wrong question. You should be fine applying to law school if you graduated from "undergrad" early, but I suggest talking to the patent attorneys from your internship about your plans.

Odds are that these guys were doing patent prosecution (i.e., dealing with inventors, writing new patents, and working with the patent office), as opposed to patent transactions or patent litigation. This is a very different career path than the average lawyer, and there are a couple things you should know.

First, prosecution requires you to get registered with the USPTO. You can learn more about registration here, and the general bulletin with the requirements can be found here. You don't have the right kind of undergraduate degree, but you can still take the exam if you have taken an equivalent number of classes in the hard sciences. You can check out the bulletin and read the fine print, but the gist is that you need to satisfy one of the following:

i. Option 1: 24 semester hours in physics. Only physics courses for physics majors will be accepted.

ii.Option 2: 32 semester hours in a combination consisting of the following: 8 semester hours of chemistry or 8 semester hours of physics, and 24 semester hours in biology, botany, microbiology, or molecular biology.

...

iii. Option 3: 30 semester hours in chemistry. Only chemistry courses for chemistry majors will be accepted.

iv. Option 4: 40 semester hours in a combination consisting of the following: 8 semester hours of chemistry or 8 semester hours of physics, and 32 semester hours of chemistry, physics, biology, botany, microbiology, molecular biology, or engineering. (For Computer Science, see other acceptable course work.)

Second, many patent prosecutors work for a law firm before going to law school. They usually start as a patent agent or some kind of "technical specialist/advisor" (basically a patent agent in training). These jobs give you a taste for what the work is like, and many of these firms will pay for your school if you agree to continue working part time. This can change the financial calculus about attending school, and its a niche area of the law where the normal assumptions about school rankings, working in big-law, long-term career prospects, etc., don't always hold.

Thanks for the advice!
I might have been confusing when I said I finished undergrad early, What I meant to say was that I’ve completed all the Pharmacy prerequisite credits and matriculated into pharmacy school right after my junior year of college without receiving a bachelors degree and will only have a pharmd diploma. I was worried I had to go back to college and take extra classes just to finish a bachelors degree even though Id have a pharmd degree. I also should be fine for the exam you mentioned because I’ve taken enough credits before the start of grad school to fulfill option 2.

[dvlthndr]

Thanks for clarifying. I'm a little surprised that you managed to matriculate into a doctorate program without finishing the bachelors. Was this at two different universities, or the same single university?

In any case, the ABA normally requires all accredited law schools to only accept students that have completed a bachelor's degree (or the foreign equivalent). See ABA Standards Section 502.

But the ABA lets schools grant an exception in "extraordinary cases" for students with the "experience, ability, and other qualifications clearly demonstrate an aptitude for the study of law." All the school has to do is document the decision and put a note in your file. I have no idea how common this is or how you could let schools know about your situation, but they could definitely let you in if they wanted to jump through the hoops to do it.

Maybe somebody out there has more experience with this kind of situation. My biggest concern is that schools would toss your application outright, or that you would need to submit by paper/email instead of the standardized LSAC templates. My best advice would be to reach out to a few admissions offices to explain the situation and see what they say (i.e, would you be able to apply to random schools in the T14 if you had the rest of the application materials in hand?).