. Forum

[Anonymous User]

I was a summer associate in SV, and got pulled right into a patent litigation project because of my technical background. I was digging through the source code of a product that allegedly violated a software patent, helping prepare a witness, one of the client's software engineers, for a deposition. During the deposition itself, we were all looking at code up on a projector, going through functions with opposing counsel grilling our engineer on how they worked. Opposing counsel was a senior associate with a technical background who could "speak the language."

I think it's important to remember that those super-star patent litigators that have no technical background have a support team of technical analysts, and also by now have been doing this type of litigation long enough that they've picked up a lot of technical knowledge. That said, when you're a junior associate and someone gives you disks full of code, you kind of have to be able to read code. At the very least, you have to be one of those people who could have done CS had they wanted to and can quickly pick up the necessary technical concepts.

[Anonymous User]

what's an example of such firm

Not sure what you're referring to.

"a somewhat smaller group with still solid work" i'm guessing

Without outing myself by naming my firm, off the top of my head firms like Covington, Keker, and Gibson Dunn come to mind as well-regarded medium-sized practices.

[jazzsax]

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[fatduck]

what's an example of such firm

Not sure what you're referring to.

"a somewhat smaller group with still solid work" i'm guessing

Without outing myself by naming my firm, off the top of my head firms like Covington, Keker, and Gibson Dunn come to mind as well-regarded medium-sized practices.

i may be crossing up anons here, but iirc you're the ex-kirkland poster. are young associates at covington getting more experience than at kirkland? seems like covington is even more skewed toward large, institutional clients, but i could be wrong.