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I'm considering looking for a new job. I'm currently a mid-level patent lawyer in prosecution.

Has anyone worked in a virtual patent firm or worked 100% remotely? How has the experience been? Do you get a near-biglaw salary from living in low COL areas around the world? Do you have meaningful client developments or build relationships with other people working for the firm?

Anonymous User wrote:I'm considering looking for a new job. I'm currently a mid-level patent lawyer in prosecution.

Has anyone worked in a virtual patent firm or worked 100% remotely? How has the experience been? Do you get a near-biglaw salary from living in low COL areas around the world? Do you have meaningful client developments or build relationships with other people working for the firm?

do you know of firms that offer this? I always worry about my current situation because I work for a public company where mergers and acquisitions are a real possibility. This would be attractive as I could move near a beach somewhere yet still work.

I know a few people who left my old biglaw firm for a virtual IP shop, and they are loving it. They have a lot of control over their schedules and workloads, and it makes work-life balance very easy. They still get lots of client contact, and it's up to you how much you put into building your own book of business (usually, these firms have a roster of clients that provide consistent work).

I would recommend checking some out, even if you don't end up going with one.

jhett wrote:I know a few people who left my old biglaw firm for a virtual IP shop, and they are loving it. They have a lot of control over their schedules and workloads, and it makes work-life balance very easy. They still get lots of client contact, and it's up to you how much you put into building your own book of business (usually, these firms have a roster of clients that provide consistent work).

I would recommend checking some out, even if you don't end up going with one.

Any idea about the pay? Seems like you could make more working the same amount of hours since the firm has significantly less overhead. Unless of course the firm decides to pocket the difference (likely, I suppose).

Anonymous User wrote:Any idea about the pay? Seems like you could make more working the same amount of hours since the firm has significantly less overhead. Unless of course the firm decides to pocket the difference (likely, I suppose).

For the particular firm that I was talking about, you took a cut of each matter that you handled. For example, if you took on a drafting matter and it totaled 10k, you would keep a percentage of the invoiced amount. I don't know the specific numbers, but they mentioned that if you had biglaw-type billable hours (~2000/year), the comp would be comparable to biglaw (that was before the latest round of raises though). It's true that the overhead is much lower, but pros budgets are tight, so it's basically a wash. The main advantage is that you choose how busy you want to be, and the pay scales linearly with that.

Of course, each firm will have different compensation schemes.