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I just got an offer from a small patent law firm (7 people) in a secondary market (e.g. Charlotte, NC) and the partner asked me how much I wanted to be paid. Being vaguely aware of negotiation strategies, I went with the "Don't name the price first" strategy and asked him what he wanted to pay me. He's currently researching what to offer. I want to know what I should be expecting so I can negotiate, if necessary.

I'm unorthodox in the sense that I am a licensed attorney (in a different state), not patent barred yet, and am currently in grad school for electrical engineering, with a background in physics.

If anybody has an idea of how much I should be expecting per hour I'd appreciate the help!

You are a licensed attorney (patent bar or not does not matter), so you should be paid like a real attorney's hourly wage. For patent prosecution, that's a bit of an easier calculation, take the market salary rate for biglaw/patent boutique divide by the billable hours (billed for patent prosecution shops). Anecdotally, I was a patent law clerk during law school and I got between 50-60/billable hour in a secondary city (think Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle).

take the market salary rate for biglaw/patent boutique divide by the billable hours

That is not how you figure out your hourly compensation at all.

OP, sounds like you're just going to be clerking? Big Law summers make $3k/wk, I wouldn't expect anything near that at a small firm in Charlotte. My large firm plays clerks (including those with JDs) a straight $20/hr when they aren't in the Summer Associate wonderland. Obviously that is a large stretch.

I would try and figure out what this firm would pay an entry level associate, and base your request on that. I would approach it differently if it was (1) just a SA gig; (2) a year round clerking gig; and (3) a patent agent/technical advisor part time or full time position.