Top Law Schools

About me:
I was a URM humanities major at a Top 5 UG with solid grades, and I'm currently doing above median at Duke, where I'm getting a joint degree (JD/LLM in Int'l & Comparative Law). One of the cool things about getting a joint degree was that it allowed me to take 9 credits outside of the law school that don't affect my law school GPA.

I'm pretty interested in soft-IP especially, but also related issues re: privacy/data security, entertainment/communications, products liability, and international transactions (since I don't have a science background, I know it's crazy to pigeonhole myself too much). I'd like to work at a medium-to-large size firm with a robust IP-litigation practice in DC or New York.

Questions:
- I'm doing research myself, but I'm totally open to anyone who can recommend firms that fit the bill.
- Should I even get my hopes up about carving out a soft-IP niche for myself eventually?
- Generally, to anyone doing this kind of work, what classes do you wish you had taken before going out into practice? What classes have helped you the most?
- Do you think there's much use in taking intro classes in comp sci? What about business classes (finance, marketing/product management, accounting)?

Thanks!

No one cares what classes you take. Just take classes that will help you maximize your GPA.

title said classes but post wants firms? you know the IP firms in DC and New York. they're big and do a lot of IP. I think Proskauer is known for doing a lot of copyright/entertainment.

I personally think it's silly to take a few science classes like that will help you get it. I have a science background and I wouldn't expect a few science classes to do much good. I think the biggest point of the science background requirement is simply so that you don't say, "oh shit this is scary" when you see numbers or chemical reactions or life-sci. Maybe a good class for that would be a broad not-for-majors survey science course - ideally one that touches on chem (pharma is fucking huge), bio (biosci is fucking huge), software (duh) and electronics (duh), but I expect that would be a hard class to find so you might have to settle.

Law school usually has classes on information privacy, although I don't really know what's talked about in there. Products liability is, as far as I'm concerned, far afield from entertainment law/copyright, so not sure why you mention that (or international transactions).

I'm pretty sure there are many more people doing patent law ("hard IP") than copyright and trademark ("soft IP"), so I expect it isn't the easiest gig to get. It's probably more important for you to be able to express the interest in these fields than to actually have a science background, since, again, IMO, it doesn't really matter. I think some classes and enthusiasm could help but I wouldn't say you should get your hopes up. Talk to the IP professors at your school, they know people in the field. Seriously. Try to get an externship at some place that does pro bono copyright work or something, or, if you're a 1L, do a summer doing it. Network.

Do not take intro to Java. Business sounds fun but I'm not really sure how it relates to the topic of this thread.

skissorzofdoom wrote:About me:
I was a URM humanities major at a Top 5 UG with solid grades, and I'm currently doing above median at Duke, where I'm getting a joint degree (JD/LLM in Int'l & Comparative Law). One of the cool things about getting a joint degree was that it allowed me to take 9 credits outside of the law school that don't affect my law school GPA.

I'm pretty interested in soft-IP especially, but also related issues re: privacy/data security, entertainment/communications, products liability, and international transactions (since I don't have a science background, I know it's crazy to pigeonhole myself too much). I'd like to work at a medium-to-large size firm with a robust IP-litigation practice in DC or New York.

Questions:
- I'm doing research myself, but I'm totally open to anyone who can recommend firms that fit the bill.
- Should I even get my hopes up about carving out a soft-IP niche for myself eventually?
- Generally, to anyone doing this kind of work, what classes do you wish you had taken before going out into practice? What classes have helped you the most?
- Do you think there's much use in taking intro classes in comp sci? What about business classes (finance, marketing/product management, accounting)?

Thanks!

Step 1) Get an SA at a firm that does a lot of copyright, trademark, or data/privacy. The later seems big in DC, and it seems like an up and coming field.

Step 2) Before your SA they will ask you what type of work you want to do.

Step 3) Tell them.

Don't push so hard about only doing soft IP at stage 1. Firms don't hire you specifically for one narrow field (with some exceptions like patent or tax). This actually helps because when you go to them before your SA and say "I really wanna do data privacy" they will hook you up.