Patent Bar Eligible 3L job prospects in NYC? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi.

3L (May 2019) from Brooklyn Law School.
3.2 GPA, Mechanical engineering background. Worked 4 years as an engineer in electrical engineering.
Very heavy class focus on patent/ip/federal courts/admin law classes.

Had a 1L summer gig in-house with patent prosecution, did patent and trademark work all 2L year via the school's clinic program, and had a 2L summer SA at a patent boutique, but didn't get an offer (50% of the SA class for this firm didn't get an offer, the boutique lost a major client)

I can imagine that people fighting for the non-patent biglaw jobs have a much harder time with my credentials, however I'm hoping ya'll say its gonna be all right.

My question is: Do patent people really get a pass on credentials? My resume is strong, my GPA is mediocre. I've always heard that GPA doesn't matter for patent persons, and I am inclined to believe it as the big patent-specific firms in new york all gave me interviews and second interviews last OCI (Haug Paterners, Fitzpatrick Cella etc)

I'm looking to focus my mass-emailing applications, and I would like to know where i realistically stand.
-Do I mass-email every 3 months?
-Do I accept whatever I get, or do I wait it out for immediate hire come May to September 2019?
-Do I include my GPA on my resume? I feel as if its disingenuous to not put it on. For what its worth, I got the OCI interviews last year with an even lower GPA (3.03)


Also, any patent-law specific groups in this forum or others? Would like to connect with this niche field.

[QContinuum]

-Do I accept whatever I get, or do I wait it out for immediate hire come May to September 2019?

Mass mail yesterday. Don't wait for May 2019.

-Do I include my GPA on my resume? I feel as if its disingenuous to not put it on. For what its worth, I got the OCI interviews last year with an even lower GPA (3.03)[/b]

I'd be in favor of including it. Leaving it off just invites employers to fear/assume something sub-3.0.

Do patent people really get a pass on credentials? My resume is strong, my GPA is mediocre. I've always heard that GPA doesn't matter for patent persons, and I am inclined to believe it as the big patent-specific firms in new york all gave me interviews and second interviews last OCI (Haug Paterners, Fitzpatrick Cella etc)

Are you looking to go into patent pros or lit? You're in a pretty solid position for pros, given your ME/EE background & 4 years' WE. (Make sure you highlight the EE part in your apps - EE's hotter than ME, AFAIK.) Pros positions usually don't care too much about law school grades. You'd be facing much more of an uphill climb for lit, which values law school grades much more and technical background less.

Getting the patent bar under your belt would also help w.r.t. pros. I'd recommend investing $500 in OmniPrep and just putting in the hours to get the thing over with.

[AnonymousPatent]

is omniprep as good as PLI (which is like 2000 dollars)

[QContinuum]

is omniprep as good as PLI (which is like 2000 dollars)

No, but it gets the job done. I wouldn't recommend OmniPrep to someone with zero prior background in patent law, but OP's spent a summer plus 2L doing patent work. Think s/he could get by with Omni.

[totesTheGoat]

Q has good advice.

-Do I mass-email every 3 months?

I'm not a huge fan of mass-mail as the primary course of action. Yes, mass mail on a continual basis. Devote a few hours a week to mass mailing. However, the patent bar is a small, insular group. Find a way to break in, and let everybody know that you're looking for a job. Buy your patent profs a cup of coffee and ask them about who you should get to know. Take a class with a patent adjunct and get to know them well. Leverage your career services office and get the names of all of the patent pros alumni. Sign up for IPO and the IP section of the state bar and anything else IP related you can find. Be that face that shows up at every IP related event on and off campus.

You'll see results if you do that.

-Do I accept whatever I get, or do I wait it out for immediate hire come May to September 2019?

I don't think you're in a horrible position, to be honest. I know some classmates with reg numbers who graduated into decent jobs while being well below median. Don't set unreasonable standards, but I don't think you have to grab the first thing that comes along.

-Do I include my GPA on my resume? I feel as if its disingenuous to not put it on. For what its worth, I got the OCI interviews last year with an even lower GPA (3.03)

Yes. I'm a proponent of always including your GPA. My hard GPA cutoff doesn't go away just because you didn't include the GPA on your resume, and I usually have your transcript anyway. I don't usually thumb through the transcript unless there's no GPA on the resume. I think that getting a "bad" GPA out in the open at the beginning is better than it coming up later (or not at all, which means you're not there to convince me to take a flyer on you when I discover your GPA).