IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff Forum

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IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:02 pm

Top 5% at ND/GW/WUSTL - i.e. not super portable, but my grades should keep me from having to stay in the school's general area if I don't want to.

Does anyone know whether it's worth it to pursue patent prosecution if my major isn't in high demand? Mechanical engineering major, don't have any work experience beyond internships, UG grades were mediocre to kinda-bad-but-not-terrible. Would it be better to just gun hard for litigation?

Is it worthwhile to bid on big time firms like K&E and Paul Weiss, or is the taint of my T25 going to be too strong to overcome? I plan to shoot for a bunch of different cities - no ties anywhere.

Are Finn/Fish/Fitz in dire straits? I've heard things, baaaaad things, about abysmal offer rates and fairly widespread layoffs, at least at Fish.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:57 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Top 5% at ND/GW/WUSTL - i.e. not super portable, but my grades should keep me from having to stay in the school's general area if I don't want to.

Does anyone know whether it's worth it to pursue patent prosecution if my major isn't in high demand? Mechanical engineering major, don't have any work experience beyond internships, UG grades were mediocre to kinda-bad-but-not-terrible. Would it be better to just gun hard for litigation?

Is it worthwhile to bid on big time firms like K&E and Paul Weiss, or is the taint of my T25 going to be too strong to overcome? I plan to shoot for a bunch of different cities - no ties anywhere.

Are Finn/Fish/Fitz in dire straits? I've heard things, baaaaad things, about abysmal offer rates and fairly widespread layoffs, at least at Fish.
Not gonna comment about Patent Pros, most because I don't really know enough about it. I have always been a litigation/transactional guy.

As for your general chances... not sure. Hard to say without meeting you. I'd say your grades (UG and Law together) put you in the position of "maybe" with a lot of firms. I think it is going to come down to your competition and how well you interview. I think you should at least have a shot with the big firms (with top 5% grades), but I am also a T14er, so you might want to get advice from someone with more experience with your school.

What I really wanted to respond to is the Finn/Fish/Fitz question. I do think Fish has not really recovered 100%, but I know Finnegan at least had a 100% offer rate last year. I think Fitzpatrick is doing good too, but I cannot say what their offer rate was.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:09 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Top 5% at ND/GW/WUSTL - i.e. not super portable, but my grades should keep me from having to stay in the school's general area if I don't want to.

Does anyone know whether it's worth it to pursue patent prosecution if my major isn't in high demand? Mechanical engineering major, don't have any work experience beyond internships, UG grades were mediocre to kinda-bad-but-not-terrible. Would it be better to just gun hard for litigation?

Is it worthwhile to bid on big time firms like K&E and Paul Weiss, or is the taint of my T25 going to be too strong to overcome? I plan to shoot for a bunch of different cities - no ties anywhere.

Are Finn/Fish/Fitz in dire straits? I've heard things, baaaaad things, about abysmal offer rates and fairly widespread layoffs, at least at Fish.
Not gonna comment about Patent Pros, most because I don't really know enough about it. I have always been a litigation/transactional guy.

As for your general chances... not sure. Hard to say without meeting you. I'd say your grades (UG and Law together) put you in the position of "maybe" with a lot of firms. I think it is going to come down to your competition and how well you interview. I think you should at least have a shot with the big firms (with top 5% grades), but I am also a T14er, so you might want to get advice from someone with more experience with your school.

What I really wanted to respond to is the Finn/Fish/Fitz question. I do think Fish has not really recovered 100%, but I know Finnegan at least had a 100% offer rate last year. I think Fitzpatrick is doing good too, but I cannot say what their offer rate was.
Yeah, I figured as much. Better than the alternative.

I saw another thread where someone who interviewed with Finnegan said they had a down year 2 years ago, just over 50% offer rate, and at least talked a good game about correcting to 100% offer rates in the foreseeable future. I suppose they're off to a good start if that was the case for last year

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by turbotong » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:13 am

Just be careful when using offer rates to judge a firm's health. Many firms went from about 50% to almost 100% offer rates in consecutive years. All they did was cut the number of 2L SA's in half.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:30 am

turbotong wrote:Just be careful when using offer rates to judge a firm's health. Many firms went from about 50% to almost 100% offer rates in consecutive years. All they did was cut the number of 2L SA's in half.
Better than the places that seem to be having competitions where 3rd prize is you're fired no-offered, but the point is well taken

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:10 am

Anonymous User wrote:Top 5% at ND/GW/WUSTL - i.e. not super portable, but my grades should keep me from having to stay in the school's general area if I don't want to.

Does anyone know whether it's worth it to pursue patent prosecution if my major isn't in high demand? Mechanical engineering major, don't have any work experience beyond internships, UG grades were mediocre to kinda-bad-but-not-terrible. Would it be better to just gun hard for litigation?

Is it worthwhile to bid on big time firms like K&E and Paul Weiss, or is the taint of my T25 going to be too strong to overcome? I plan to shoot for a bunch of different cities - no ties anywhere.

Are Finn/Fish/Fitz in dire straits? I've heard things, baaaaad things, about abysmal offer rates and fairly widespread layoffs, at least at Fish.
I was top 15% at a TT last year for PLIP and got 5 screening interviews (one CHI, one Boston, two NYC, one DC). I personally know of people at my T20 (transferred for 2L) in the top 15-10% coming away with at least 10 screening interviews. That said, are you dead-set on prosecution? Do you know the difference between litigation and prosecution? MechE isn't in highest demand for prosecution, but my major was arguably in lower demand and I did pretty well through PLIP/OCI (4 offers), spinning my interest in BOTH prosecution and litigation.

It's PLIP, dood. You've got top 5% at a tier of pretty good schools. You have no ties anywhere. There are so many confounding factors to determine whether you're going to have a better shot at Firm A v. Firm B. Pick a few cities, pick firms you're interested in, and bid accordingly. PLIP is like pregaming OCI. With your grades and school tier, as I mentioned earlier, you're most likely going to get a handful of interviews.

As for the "F"-boutiques. I did CBs with all but Fish (only screened with them...but look at NALP...seems they no-offered a bunch, and are now taking much smaller classes).

If you look at Finnegan's NALP form, you'll see they no-offered about 50% of their SAs from Summer 2009. For Summer 2010, however, the firm offered (if not exactly, then just about) 100%. Keep in mind, moreover, that this Summer 2011 class will be almost 50% smaller than in the "boomtimes." Like most firms these days, all this seems to be par for the course. I'm not sure about deferrals and later start-dates, but from my conversations with the firm, it seemed like they'd "righted the ship." In sum, Finnegan is a great firm with quite a few rockstar litigators, and I doubt it will be closing its doors any time soon (firm was adamant about not "screwing" SAs ever again).

If you look at Fitzpatrick's NALP form, you'll see they had about an 83% offer rate in Summer 2009. For Summer 2010, the firm offered (if not exactly, then just about) 100%. Keep in mind, however, that this Summer 2011 class will be about 25% smaller than in the "boomtimes." Unlike most firms these days, it seems Fitzpatrick has weathered the storm pretty well. In choosing a firm ITE (after you have your offers), it is extremely important to think about firm financial health and longevity (in the wake of other IP boutiques like Fish & Neave, Darby & Darby, etc...closing shop). Apparently, Fitzpatrick not only had its best years in the past few years, but the firm is poised to grow (apparently was in talks with Townsend before their merger with Kilpatrick). In sum, unless the firm was pulling the wool over my eyes (lol), I wouldn't worry about no-offers or layoffs (barring a full-on economic depression). Their bread-and-butter practice is Hatch-Waxman litigation, which is pretty insulated from the broader economy.

If you look at Kenyon's NAL form, you'll see they had a bit better than a 50% offer rate in Summer 2009. For Summer 2010, the firm offered (if not exactly, then just about) 100%. This Summer 2011, the class will be more than 50% smaller than in the "boomtimes." Like most firms these days, this also seems to be par for the course. It seemed as if they'd also "righted the ship," but I do know that they had lots of deferred start dates for incoming associates over the past few years. I don't know for sure about layoffs, but I don't believe there were any. I think Kenyon (IP boutique in NYC similar to Fitzpatrick) is still a great choice, however, since they (like Fitzpatrick) have apparently subsumed lots of Darby & Darby and Fish & Neave's work.

As for the IP-boutique outlook...I doubt they're going anywhere, for the most part, any time soon. Boutiques are moving to lower-fee billing models, which has apparently attracted some business away from biglaw shops with IP groups. OP, you should decide also which type of firm you'd prefer, biglaw multi-practice or IP boutique. Both have tons of great features to offer, so be cognizant of the similarities and differences.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:22 am

Last year T20 students with grades like OPs got 20+ interviews.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:22 pm

Just know that you've got a lot of competition.

I got a screener with one of the Fs last year at PLIP and I was told I was lucky since they had more than 1300 bids for 20 spots.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:38 pm

Do you want to do prosecution or litigation? This is a key question.

I think with your grades, it is worth bidding on grade snobby firms. From what I have seen, firms seem to like high grades at a T20-T25 more than mediocre grades from a T10. I fall into the latter category.

That being said, IP is different than other areas. I was bottom third, no law review, (but technical background), only interviewed in CA at bigfirms for patent lit, didn't go to PLIP, and had 8 offers. Don't be overly confident, but there is a reason people say IPSecure. Also, don't follow in my footsteps - go to PLIP. I was just being lazy.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:18 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Just know that you've got a lot of competition.

I got a screener with one of the Fs last year at PLIP and I was told I was lucky since they had more than 1300 bids for 20 spots.
Yeah, pretty much what I expected. Hopefully the school/grades combo puts me ahead of the hordes of EEs with worse grades at worse schools
Anonymous User wrote:Do you want to do prosecution or litigation? This is a key question.

I think with your grades, it is worth bidding on grade snobby firms. From what I have seen, firms seem to like high grades at a T20-T25 more than mediocre grades from a T10. I fall into the latter category.

That being said, IP is different than other areas. I was bottom third, no law review, (but technical background), only interviewed in CA at bigfirms for patent lit, didn't go to PLIP, and had 8 offers. Don't be overly confident, but there is a reason people say IPSecure. Also, don't follow in my footsteps - go to PLIP. I was just being lazy.
I'd probably lean towards prosecution all other things being equal, but I know the ME degree isn't going to do me any favors there. I don't have any qualms about patent lit. I think I'd rather have some control over which city I'll work in than have to take an offer in a city I'm not interested in just because I'm hung up on prosecution

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by zzzzzzzzzz » Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:20 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Top 5% at ND/GW/WUSTL - i.e. not super portable, but my grades should keep me from having to stay in the school's general area if I don't want to.

Does anyone know whether it's worth it to pursue patent prosecution if my major isn't in high demand? Mechanical engineering major, don't have any work experience beyond internships, UG grades were mediocre to kinda-bad-but-not-terrible. Would it be better to just gun hard for litigation?

Is it worthwhile to bid on big time firms like K&E and Paul Weiss, or is the taint of my T25 going to be too strong to overcome? I plan to shoot for a bunch of different cities - no ties anywhere.

Are Finn/Fish/Fitz in dire straits? I've heard things, baaaaad things, about abysmal offer rates and fairly widespread layoffs, at least at Fish.
PM me for more info.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:07 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Just know that you've got a lot of competition.

I got a screener with one of the Fs last year at PLIP and I was told I was lucky since they had more than 1300 bids for 20 spots.
Yeah, pretty much what I expected. Hopefully the school/grades combo puts me ahead of the hordes of EEs with worse grades at worse schools.
Hordes of EEs? Maybe there are more at the lower ranked schools, but I was under the impression that we were relatively rare. I am actually the only EE hired for this upcoming summer at my firm, and I know for a fact at least 3 of the other summers without an EE degree were hired with the idea that they would be doing Electrical work. I think you should be more worried about how many Mech Es there are in comparison to the relatively low need for them in firms. I doubt an EE is going to be the one to steal your jerb.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:22 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Just know that you've got a lot of competition.

I got a screener with one of the Fs last year at PLIP and I was told I was lucky since they had more than 1300 bids for 20 spots.
Yeah, pretty much what I expected. Hopefully the school/grades combo puts me ahead of the hordes of EEs with worse grades at worse schools.
Hordes of EEs? Maybe there are more at the lower ranked schools, but I was under the impression that we were relatively rare. I am actually the only EE hired for this upcoming summer at my firm, and I know for a fact at least 3 of the other summers without an EE degree were hired with the idea that they would be doing Electrical work. I think you should be more worried about how many Mech Es there are in comparison to the relatively low need for them in firms. I doubt an EE is going to be the one to steal your jerb.
TBF I was just saying that because I'm jealous of the average EE's mathematical ability.

Also because I have nightmares about dozens of EEs clamoring for every IP spot, thwarting me at every turn with their superior knowledge of electricity

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Mar 31, 2011 2:11 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Just know that you've got a lot of competition.

I got a screener with one of the Fs last year at PLIP and I was told I was lucky since they had more than 1300 bids for 20 spots.
Yeah, pretty much what I expected. Hopefully the school/grades combo puts me ahead of the hordes of EEs with worse grades at worse schools.
Hordes of EEs? Maybe there are more at the lower ranked schools, but I was under the impression that we were relatively rare. I am actually the only EE hired for this upcoming summer at my firm, and I know for a fact at least 3 of the other summers without an EE degree were hired with the idea that they would be doing Electrical work. I think you should be more worried about how many Mech Es there are in comparison to the relatively low need for them in firms. I doubt an EE is going to be the one to steal your jerb.
TBF I was just saying that because I'm jealous of the average EE's mathematical ability.

Also because I have nightmares about dozens of EEs clamoring for every IP spot, thwarting me at every turn with their superior knowledge of electricity
Well don't worry so much, we are no where near as numerous as you fear.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by erico » Fri Apr 08, 2011 11:02 pm

zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Top 5% at ND/GW/WUSTL - i.e. not super portable, but my grades should keep me from having to stay in the school's general area if I don't want to.

Does anyone know whether it's worth it to pursue patent prosecution if my major isn't in high demand? Mechanical engineering major, don't have any work experience beyond internships, UG grades were mediocre to kinda-bad-but-not-terrible. Would it be better to just gun hard for litigation?

Is it worthwhile to bid on big time firms like K&E and Paul Weiss, or is the taint of my T25 going to be too strong to overcome? I plan to shoot for a bunch of different cities - no ties anywhere.

Are Finn/Fish/Fitz in dire straits? I've heard things, baaaaad things, about abysmal offer rates and fairly widespread layoffs, at least at Fish.
PM me for more info.
pm sent

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by 2LLLL » Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:20 am

As for the IP-boutique outlook...I doubt they're going anywhere, for the most part, any time soon. Boutiques are moving to lower-fee billing models, which has apparently attracted some business away from biglaw shops with IP groups. OP, you should decide also which type of firm you'd prefer, biglaw multi-practice or IP boutique. Both have tons of great features to offer, so be cognizant of the similarities and differences.

I think this is very credited. I'm not IP personally, but I paralegal'ed at a DC IP boutique prior to law school and we got busier without layoffs when the economy tanked. I think that what is left of BigLaw patent prosecution practices will continue to flee to IP boutiques with lower rates, with possibly the same trend occurring for everything but bet-the-company IP litigation.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:08 pm

i was top 15% at gw/wustl/nd last year. definitely worth it to bid on firms like KE and Paul Weiss - know people who got both last year from GW, so i don't think the "taint" of your T25 is going to be too strong to overcome. i bid extremely conservatively and it seemed to backfire - got callbacks at almost all most V10-20s i bid on and rejected at a lot of the prosecution boutiques i thought i had a better shot at (could possibly because my technical background is weaker than my law school grades and i was more interested in litigation). if i could do it again i wouldve bid more aggressively.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:29 am

Anonymous User wrote:i was top 15% at gw/wustl/nd last year. definitely worth it to bid on firms like KE and Paul Weiss - know people who got both last year from GW, so i don't think the "taint" of your T25 is going to be too strong to overcome. i bid extremely conservatively and it seemed to backfire - got callbacks at almost all most V10-20s i bid on and rejected at a lot of the prosecution boutiques i thought i had a better shot at (could possibly because my technical background is weaker than my law school grades and i was more interested in litigation). if i could do it again i wouldve bid more aggressively.
This is pretty much in line with what I've heard from other sources re: bidding. Could be a function of strong Vault firms not taking as much of a hit ITE, or at least recovering more quickly. As expected, the new NALP data paints a pretty grim picture, but a lot of NY/DC V20s seem to be getting back to pre-ITE hiring levels. *cue rain dance*

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Ship87 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:49 am

I have a question about IP as an incoming student at Columbia. I'll have a bachelors in Physics (and Economics, though I don't think thats very relevant here) from a state school. I want to do patent litigation but I'm worried that my degree (physics, not engineering) and the prestige of my UG (nonexistent) will be a big hindrance. What kind of grades would I need to secure a good IP litigation job? Top 1/3? Median? Is the specific UG major important or is just having a general hard science background enough for IP lit? Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Let me add that my UG grades were ok (3.7ish for physics), but I didn't do any research or anything that really used the degree.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by erico » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:19 am

Ship87 wrote:I have a question about IP as an incoming student at Columbia. I'll have a bachelors in Physics (and Economics, though I don't think thats very relevant here) from a state school. I want to do patent litigation but I'm worried that my degree (physics, not engineering) and the prestige of my UG (nonexistent) will be a big hindrance. What kind of grades would I need to secure a good IP litigation job? Top 1/3? Median? Is the specific UG major important or is just having a general hard science background enough for IP lit? Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Let me add that my UG grades were ok (3.7ish for physics), but I didn't do any research or anything that really used the degree.
you can do lit w/a BA and generally need better grades than are req'd for pros.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by 09042014 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:21 am

erico wrote:
Ship87 wrote:I have a question about IP as an incoming student at Columbia. I'll have a bachelors in Physics (and Economics, though I don't think thats very relevant here) from a state school. I want to do patent litigation but I'm worried that my degree (physics, not engineering) and the prestige of my UG (nonexistent) will be a big hindrance. What kind of grades would I need to secure a good IP litigation job? Top 1/3? Median? Is the specific UG major important or is just having a general hard science background enough for IP lit? Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Let me add that my UG grades were ok (3.7ish for physics), but I didn't do any research or anything that really used the degree.
you can do lit w/a BA and generally need better grades than are req'd for pros.
Allowed to v. someone will hire you to do

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by erico » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:33 am

Desert Fox wrote:
erico wrote:
Ship87 wrote:I have a question about IP as an incoming student at Columbia. I'll have a bachelors in Physics (and Economics, though I don't think thats very relevant here) from a state school. I want to do patent litigation but I'm worried that my degree (physics, not engineering) and the prestige of my UG (nonexistent) will be a big hindrance. What kind of grades would I need to secure a good IP litigation job? Top 1/3? Median? Is the specific UG major important or is just having a general hard science background enough for IP lit? Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Let me add that my UG grades were ok (3.7ish for physics), but I didn't do any research or anything that really used the degree.
you can do lit w/a BA and generally need better grades than are req'd for pros.
Allowed to v. someone will hire you to do
touche but is ee > physics for lit?

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:43 pm

Few things:

re: hordes of EEs: At least at my school (MVPB), there is a medium sized horde of them. About 15 in my class if you include CS people. Chemists/other biotech/pharma people are also numerous - probably about the same number. You can probably guess the school. Ahem.

re: patent lit with no science background/not as strong of a science background: Some firms care, some firms don't. My firm (I'm a 2L) has a mixture of people with and without technical degrees in patent lit. My boyfriend's firm (he's a 2d year associate) will only hire technical degree people into patent lit, as evidenced by not a single patent litigator in their department lacks a technical degree. If you are a non-tech person wanting to do patent lit, look at the attorneys at the firm in that practice group - that should give you a good sense.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by tinman » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:54 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Few things:

re: hordes of EEs: At least at my school (MVPB), there is a medium sized horde of them. About 15 in my class if you include CS people. Chemists/other biotech/pharma people are also numerous - probably about the same number. You can probably guess the school. Ahem.

re: patent lit with no science background/not as strong of a science background: Some firms care, some firms don't. My firm (I'm a 2L) has a mixture of people with and without technical degrees in patent lit. My boyfriend's firm (he's a 2d year associate) will only hire technical degree people into patent lit, as evidenced by not a single patent litigator in their department lacks a technical degree. If you are a non-tech person wanting to do patent lit, look at the attorneys at the firm in that practice group - that should give you a good sense.
haha. Not a single EE person at Yale that I know of, for what it's worth. A couple of CS people maybe, but none that I know of going into IP. I'm guessing this anon. poster is at Boalt.
Ship87 wrote:I have a question about IP as an incoming student at Columbia. I'll have a bachelors in Physics (and Economics, though I don't think thats very relevant here) from a state school. I want to do patent litigation but I'm worried that my degree (physics, not engineering) and the prestige of my UG (nonexistent) will be a big hindrance. What kind of grades would I need to secure a good IP litigation job? Top 1/3? Median? Is the specific UG major important or is just having a general hard science background enough for IP lit? Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Let me add that my UG grades were ok (3.7ish for physics), but I didn't do any research or anything that really used the degree.
I think you will be just fine. Columbia is a great law school. And physics is fine preparation for IP lit, I think. Work on doing well 1L year and you'll be set for the rest of your life.

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Re: IP gurus - PLIP and other stuff

Post by erico » Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:02 pm

there are about 10 IP guys in my class and only two of us are EE.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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