Did you go into BigLaw thinking it would be better for you? Forum

[ballouttacontrol]

Anyone know if IP biglaw is any different? I keep hearing how IP isnt as bad and it is much easier to get into (if you're patent bar eligible).

0L here... I'm considering living a life of pain and misery. Have a super relaxed job with great benefits now and I get incredibly bored. Figured more stress and higher pay would be nice changes. Half my free time is spent highlighting desktop icons

IP at places like a Quinn or Kirkland or Irell are going to be just as brutal as any other biglaw practice. IP boutiques might be a bit different (it's out of my area of substantial knowledge), but they aren't really the v-whatever firms that most people talk about when talking about "biglaw."

Quinn and Kirkland aren't really IP places-- patent lit does not seem to me any different than whatever other generic biglaw hell. People doing pros at either a boutique or " regional biglaw" (think AmLaw 100-200ish) seem to mostly say they enjoy their work and work life balance. Billing much over 2k seems to be out of the ordinary. But, with the caveat, billing 1 hour in pros is much more difficult than billing 1 hour in lit, and I'm sure corporate too though I have no exp there

Pay varies from starting slightly lower to softly higher than market, most firms matching above criteria will start between $130-180k or so. Raises seem overall much smaller than biglaw though

[totesTheGoat]

This is terrible advice for most non-law corporate jobs. I hardly did anything in my pre-law gig and was considered a rockstar by the managers because, when I did do things, I did them faster and better than people twenty years my senior.

Different corporate cultures, I guess. People came and went as they pleased at my company. As long as deadlines were hit, nobody cared.

[Danger Zone]

I mean, not just the face time thing, but requesting work. That all seems like bad advice for most jobs.

[totesTheGoat]

If it's between requesting work and screwing around on the internet all day/week/month, the former is better. There is something seriously flawed with the person's career progression if they're working in a patent bar eligible profession and consistently not getting enough work to do. In my (secondhand) experience, that was usually indicative of 1) being so new that the manager hadn't accurately gauged their ability; 2) them putting out sub-par work product and being considered a toxic addition to any project; or 3) a company with serious overstaffing issues (aka layoff time).

I don't see how telling your manager that you can take on more responsibility is a bad thing (except in #3, which is just a shitty environment to be stuck in). It's not like legal work where asking for more work is a license for a partner to abuse you.

[krads153]

Anyone know if IP biglaw is any different? I keep hearing how IP isnt as bad and it is much easier to get into (if you're patent bar eligible).

0L here... I'm considering living a life of pain and misery. Have a super relaxed job with great benefits now and I get incredibly bored. Figured more stress and higher pay would be nice changes. Half my free time is spent highlighting desktop icons

Go home! Seriously, if you're not productive, go home! You're just wasting your time and the company's resources sitting there and doing nothing. If you're at a company that expects "face time," you need to go to your manager and tell them to give you more work. If you are consistently not given work, you're a likely candidate the next time layoffs come around.

Go start a thread in the Ask a Student/Graduate forum to ask about the difference between IP biglaw and tech. There are plenty of us who would respond, but I don't want to derail this thread.

This is terrible advice for most non-law corporate jobs. I hardly did anything in my pre-law gig and was considered a rockstar by the managers because, when I did do things, I did them faster and better than people twenty years my senior.

OMG tell me what you did and how to get that job

[Anonymous User]

If it's between requesting work and screwing around on the internet all day/week/month, the former is better. There is something seriously flawed with the person's career progression if they're working in a patent bar eligible profession and consistently not getting enough work to do. In my (secondhand) experience, that was usually indicative of 1) being so new that the manager hadn't accurately gauged their ability; 2) them putting out sub-par work product and being considered a toxic addition to any project; or 3) a company with serious overstaffing issues (aka layoff time).

I don't see how telling your manager that you can take on more responsibility is a bad thing (except in #3, which is just a shitty environment to be stuck in). It's not like legal work where asking for more work is a license for a partner to abuse you.

Unfortunately, in my case its the company culture. I worked in another company where I was constantly busy. It was a very good company and the work was very important. At my current job I have asked for work and right now there are a people in some areas who are very busy but cant share work and then there are others who are rarely busy. This flips around all the time though. I have had days where I worked until midnight (nothing compared to biglaw I know...). Those days were much more interesting for sure.

I put out good work and have developed some pretty cool things. I've helped out other groups and received praise from every manager. The biggest reason I am bored is the hiring requirements for the position fit me well, but they were well above what the position requires

I didnt mean to hijack this thread. I actually meant my "free time outside work" was spent highlighting desktop icons. The other half of my free time is hobbies and networking.

I dont work there, but I know an engineer at GM who said she can barely work 40 hours a week with so little to do. (since above poster asked haha)

[Danger Zone]

Anyone know if IP biglaw is any different? I keep hearing how IP isnt as bad and it is much easier to get into (if you're patent bar eligible).

0L here... I'm considering living a life of pain and misery. Have a super relaxed job with great benefits now and I get incredibly bored. Figured more stress and higher pay would be nice changes. Half my free time is spent highlighting desktop icons

Go home! Seriously, if you're not productive, go home! You're just wasting your time and the company's resources sitting there and doing nothing. If you're at a company that expects "face time," you need to go to your manager and tell them to give you more work. If you are consistently not given work, you're a likely candidate the next time layoffs come around.

Go start a thread in the Ask a Student/Graduate forum to ask about the difference between IP biglaw and tech. There are plenty of us who would respond, but I don't want to derail this thread.

This is terrible advice for most non-law corporate jobs. I hardly did anything in my pre-law gig and was considered a rockstar by the managers because, when I did do things, I did them faster and better than people twenty years my senior.

OMG tell me what you did and how to get that job

Financial analyst at a F500

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know if IP biglaw is any different? I keep hearing how IP isnt as bad and it is much easier to get into (if you're patent bar eligible).

0L here... I'm considering living a life of pain and misery. Have a super relaxed job with great benefits now and I get incredibly bored. Figured more stress and higher pay would be nice changes. Half my free time is spent highlighting desktop icons

i'm a patent pros d00d at a large ip firm and life isn't that great. maybe better than other biglaw gigs but still pretty stressful. i'm on call 24/7 just like everyone else. i have the same billable requirement as everyone else. if something needs to be filed that day and the review partner doesn't get to your draft until 11:30 pm that night because they are in Japan, then i'm up waiting to receive comments and file. that happens A LOT. also, a lot of our clients are in foreign countries and therefore i'm getting emails at all hours of the day/night, requests to have invention disclosure calls at 2 am, requests to discuss application drafts, etc. on top of all that, there is a lot of pressure to keep bills down.

it's a far cry from being an engineer that is for damn sure. can't speak to how life is in small pros boutiques though. probably better.

but i am glad to say that i just accepted an in-house position after three years of firm life. best day of my life when i got the call.

[krads153]

Anyone know if IP biglaw is any different? I keep hearing how IP isnt as bad and it is much easier to get into (if you're patent bar eligible).

0L here... I'm considering living a life of pain and misery. Have a super relaxed job with great benefits now and I get incredibly bored. Figured more stress and higher pay would be nice changes. Half my free time is spent highlighting desktop icons

Go home! Seriously, if you're not productive, go home! You're just wasting your time and the company's resources sitting there and doing nothing. If you're at a company that expects "face time," you need to go to your manager and tell them to give you more work. If you are consistently not given work, you're a likely candidate the next time layoffs come around.

Go start a thread in the Ask a Student/Graduate forum to ask about the difference between IP biglaw and tech. There are plenty of us who would respond, but I don't want to derail this thread.

This is terrible advice for most non-law corporate jobs. I hardly did anything in my pre-law gig and was considered a rockstar by the managers because, when I did do things, I did them faster and better than people twenty years my senior.

OMG tell me what you did and how to get that job

Financial analyst at a F500

You thinking of going back to it? Didn't realize non-law F500 company corporate jobs were so sweet...

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know if IP biglaw is any different? I keep hearing how IP isnt as bad and it is much easier to get into (if you're patent bar eligible).

0L here... I'm considering living a life of pain and misery. Have a super relaxed job with great benefits now and I get incredibly bored. Figured more stress and higher pay would be nice changes. Half my free time is spent highlighting desktop icons

Go home! Seriously, if you're not productive, go home! You're just wasting your time and the company's resources sitting there and doing nothing. If you're at a company that expects "face time," you need to go to your manager and tell them to give you more work. If you are consistently not given work, you're a likely candidate the next time layoffs come around.

Go start a thread in the Ask a Student/Graduate forum to ask about the difference between IP biglaw and tech. There are plenty of us who would respond, but I don't want to derail this thread.

This is terrible advice for most non-law corporate jobs. I hardly did anything in my pre-law gig and was considered a rockstar by the managers because, when I did do things, I did them faster and better than people twenty years my senior.

OMG tell me what you did and how to get that job

Financial analyst at a F500

You thinking of going back to it? Didn't realize non-law F500 company corporate jobs were so sweet...

I was about to ask him the same thing. I was a financial analyst at a small tech company before law school and think about going back to that occasionally. In the interim 5 years since I left for law school and now biglaw, friends that stayed on that track are looking at low six figures with 9-5 hours and much better benefits. They also have the option to gun for upper management that beats out anything law can offer. I left because I was bored, but I never hated the job or was genuinely miserable like I am in biglaw. That career is so easy to get as well. More undergrads unsure of what to do should really consider it.

[Danger Zone]

I think about it sometimes, but also worry that I'd be unemployable due to being "over-qualified." Also I really need the paycheck right now so gotta grind away in misery for another year or two.

[SplitMyPants]

Anyone know if IP biglaw is any different? I keep hearing how IP isnt as bad and it is much easier to get into (if you're patent bar eligible).

0L here... I'm considering living a life of pain and misery. Have a super relaxed job with great benefits now and I get incredibly bored. Figured more stress and higher pay would be nice changes. Half my free time is spent highlighting desktop icons

i'm a patent pros d00d at a large ip firm and life isn't that great. maybe better than other biglaw gigs but still pretty stressful. i'm on call 24/7 just like everyone else. i have the same billable requirement as everyone else. if something needs to be filed that day and the review partner doesn't get to your draft until 11:30 pm that night because they are in Japan, then i'm up waiting to receive comments and file. that happens A LOT. also, a lot of our clients are in foreign countries and therefore i'm getting emails at all hours of the day/night, requests to have invention disclosure calls at 2 am, requests to discuss application drafts, etc. on top of all that, there is a lot of pressure to keep bills down.

it's a far cry from being an engineer that is for damn sure. can't speak to how life is in small pros boutiques though. probably better.

but i am glad to say that i just accepted an in-house position after three years of firm life. best day of my life when i got the call.

Large IP firm meaning a GP firm that's big into IP, or a large IP boutique—e.g. Fish/Finnegan etc.?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know if IP biglaw is any different? I keep hearing how IP isnt as bad and it is much easier to get into (if you're patent bar eligible).

0L here... I'm considering living a life of pain and misery. Have a super relaxed job with great benefits now and I get incredibly bored. Figured more stress and higher pay would be nice changes. Half my free time is spent highlighting desktop icons

i'm a patent pros d00d at a large ip firm and life isn't that great. maybe better than other biglaw gigs but still pretty stressful. i'm on call 24/7 just like everyone else. i have the same billable requirement as everyone else. if something needs to be filed that day and the review partner doesn't get to your draft until 11:30 pm that night because they are in Japan, then i'm up waiting to receive comments and file. that happens A LOT. also, a lot of our clients are in foreign countries and therefore i'm getting emails at all hours of the day/night, requests to have invention disclosure calls at 2 am, requests to discuss application drafts, etc. on top of all that, there is a lot of pressure to keep bills down.

it's a far cry from being an engineer that is for damn sure. can't speak to how life is in small pros boutiques though. probably better.

but i am glad to say that i just accepted an in-house position after three years of firm life. best day of my life when i got the call.

Large IP firm meaning a GP firm that's big into IP, or a large IP boutique—e.g. Fish/Finnegan etc.?

the latter