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Hello All,

I will be 29 when starting law school with 5+ years experience as a lead engineer working government acquisitions/defense.

My Undergrad GPA was a 3.67 cumulative from a good engineering school, and my current lsat is a 165 (plan to retake to bring that # up).

I have an Electrical & Computer engineering B.S. and M.S.

Questions:

1. Does anyone that has already applied and attended/attending law school have a similar background? If so what was the application experience like?
2. What schools should someone with my background target? (Note: Obviously the T-14 is appealing but I want to limit my debt + I work full time + overtime, so don't know if I can bring my LSAT up to T-14 standards)
3. I am leaning towards IP + international law. (have experience working with NATO countries)
4. For IP law does ranking matter?
5. What is the job market like for IP, (I'm thinking IP + Computer + Cyber + International) some combination of those legal topics?
6. Side Note: I am looking at the NC Chapel Hill, and Duke potentially because my GF is pending a job offer in that area, if that falls through the skies the limit, so I am open to suggestions.
7. If anyone is familiar with the programs at NC Chapel Hill and Duke can you recommend one vs the other for someone with an engineering major, note: I would rather not work in NYC, yeah it has a lot of big law firms, but I don't like the (taxes, cost of living, and over crowding).

If anyone has suggestions on any of the above I'm all ears! Thanks for taking the time to read!

gottbenn_100 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:39 pm

Hello All,

I will be 29 when starting law school with 5+ years experience as a lead engineer working government acquisitions/defense.

My Undergrad GPA was a 3.67 cumulative from a good engineering school, and my current lsat is a 165 (plan to retake to bring that # up).

I have an Electrical & Computer engineering B.S. and M.S.

Questions:

1. Does anyone that has already applied and attended/attending law school have a similar background? If so what was the application experience like?
2. What schools should someone with my background target? (Note: Obviously the T-14 is appealing but I want to limit my debt + I work full time + overtime, so don't know if I can bring my LSAT up to T-14 standards)
3. I am leaning towards IP + international law. (have experience working with NATO countries)
4. For IP law does ranking matter?
5. What is the job market like for IP, (I'm thinking IP + Computer + Cyber + International) some combination of those legal topics?
6. Side Note: I am looking at the NC Chapel Hill, and Duke potentially because my GF is pending a job offer in that area, if that falls through the skies the limit, so I am open to suggestions.
7. If anyone is familiar with the programs at NC Chapel Hill and Duke can you recommend one vs the other for someone with an engineering major, note: I would rather not work in NYC, yeah it has a lot of big law firms, but I don't like the (taxes, cost of living, and over crowding).

If anyone has suggestions on any of the above I'm all ears! Thanks for taking the time to read!

I can't answer all of those questions as I'm not in IP, but I can give some background having practice for a while and knowing a decent number of IP lawyers.

2.Once you get outside of the T14, law schools choices become very regional and local. Even within the T14, location matters. The best part time program available is Georgetown, and it does tend to attract a decent number of engineers. When I was in law school, some firms D.C. would pay future IP attorneys with good engineering credentials as technical consultants and pay their way through school in the PT program (also a common thing at GW). It was a killer deal for those who got it. Worth looking into at least. You'd probably get into Georgetown Part time with a 165 and your background.

3. "International law" is commonly misunderstood by 0Ls. It's not really a practice area, so much as a statement of fact that many practices involve international issues. International IP is a thing (i.e. protecting intellectual property rights abroad), but is a different practice than doing patent prosecution before the USPTO. Moreover, a lot of those international IP issues have to be handled by local counsel.

4. Yes. Ranking always matters. But keep in mind that rankings aren't linear and USNEWS is not the be all end all of ranking. There's pretty a big drop off in placement after you get past the top 18 or so schools (basically T14 + UCLA/Vandy/Texas), though it fluctuates from year to year. Specialty specific rankings don't really matter, and should only be used to decide between similarly ranked schools.

5. The job market ebbs and flows. EE/Software background is highly marketable. Patent prosecution is getting priced out of a lot of large firms, however. Companies tend not to want to pay much for new patents. Patent litigation doesn't require passing the patent bar or having a technical background, but it does give you a leg up.

6. Strong preference for Duke unless you really want to stay in NC.

7. Duke has a relatively small class size and very strong firm placement. It's head and shoulders better than UNC from a prospective student perspective.

8. Unfortunately, NYC is the center of the legal universe and the easiest place to get a biglaw job. However, I think D.C. is the place to be for IP law if that's acceptable. Still big city east coast, but not crowded like NYC. I will note that one advantage of patent work is that there are a decent number of boutiques (due to biglaw tending to jettison their prosecution practices, which may make smaller non traditional biglaw cities more viable to live in. For what it's worth, I couldn't stand the thought of living in NYC but ended up there anyways at the start of my career. I lateraled to Texas after 3 years, but I'm actually glad I had the experience of living in NYC.

Why do you want to go to law school? I would think that you make pretty close to what a first year associate would make, minus the heartburn of being a first year associate and 3 years of lost income.