Practicing attorney, accepted to a MS program, should I attend? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Appreciate anyone willing to read my diatribe and lend advice.

I am a practicing attorney, roughly 5 years out of school. I am currently in house at a tech company. Large and well performing company doing some cool things, but not a household name. My work consists of tech transactions and L&E. Prior to this I spent about 3 years in law firms, including a stay in biglaw.

I graduated median with LR from a regional school. Undergrad in Finance from a decent school.

I recently was accepted to an MS program in Computer Science (online). For the past year I've been completing prerequisites in order to qualify for admission. These were all done online also. It is a highly respected school (though only in tech fields, probably unknown to the average lawyer) and the degree program is a "full" Master of Science degree, not a watered down or renamed degree. The cost of the degree should not be part of the consideration. I would be able to do it part time and stay in my current position.

What do I intend to get out of this? I have a few thoughts/hopes of what the degree could do for me. I have always been interested in being admitted to the patent bar, but the Alice era of software patents is frightening. Is patent prosecution even staying in biglaw? And how in the world could an in-house attorney transition back to biglaw in a new practice area? I am not sure what I could do as a patent attorney other than accomplishing a personal goal.

My other consideration is that perhaps this would be a nice stepping stone to a higher position in the in-house hierarchy. I doubt it would work, at least in my current company. Maybe it could help in going to a more major tech company?

Essentially, do you see any value to this degree for me? At the end of the day, I am an ambitious person trying to overcome my non-prestigious law pedigree to become something more significant, whether that could be GC somewhere, or Partner or whatnot.

[jhett]

Prosecution is dying in biglaw. More and more of it is moving to smaller IP boutiques, or done directly by in-house counsel.

You don't need to know the technology at a patent attorney level to move up in a tech company. I'm an in-house IP attorney and our GC has only a surface-level understanding of IP law and the technology of our company, but that's totally fine. They rely on us IP professionals to get it right for them.

It's probably beneficial to learn more about CS if you want to remain at CS-oriented companies. But there are probably cheaper and less time-consuming ways to do that other than getting a Masters. You can do online courses, audit courses at a university, do a CS boot camp, etc.

[Anonymous User]

You don't need to know the technology at a patent attorney level to move up in a tech company. I'm an in-house IP attorney and our GC has only a surface-level understanding of IP law and the technology of our company, but that's totally fine.

Thanks for the reply. I definitely agree that you don't need the academic background. From my experience, what you "need" to be GC at a large tech company is at least some experience as a Partner in biglaw, which I am not exactly on track to achieve. The time consumption of the MS program is definitely a drawback (money not an issue for it), but I would consider it if I thought it could distinguish me enough to get consideration for upper level positions.

[QContinuum]

I don't think an online Master's would be too helpful for your goals.

First, there's still a general stigma against online degree programs - or at least a perception that they're less rigorous & less prestigious than traditional, on-campus degree programs. (And as you know, in law prestige is everything.)

Second, are you sure the CS Master's you're considering would even make you eligible for the patent bar? See https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/fil ... ED_GRB.pdf - the requirements for patent bar eligibility based on a graduate degree can be tricky.

Third, while a CS Master's might help you land patent prosecution work, I don't think it'd get you a BigLaw prosecution gig. The BigLaw progression is fairly rigid, and you have zero prior prosecution experience. No BigLaw firm would take you on as a third-year or above prosecution associate given your lack of experience - prosecution is an incredibly niche practice, and your tech transactions experience won't really translate at all. Yet your seniority suggests that you would need to enter as a fifth or sixth year associate. Even if you were willing to take a huge seniority cut and start all over again as a first/second-year prosecution associate, I think you'd have a huge uphill fight convincing BigLaw firms to subscribe to that plan. BigLawyers simply don't start over as first/second years.

So all in all, at best the CS Master's would make you patent bar eligible, and would help you secure a non-BigLaw prosecution gig. It doesn't sound like that accords with your goals. I'd recommend foregoing the Master's and focusing your energies on climbing the ladder the old-fashioned way - luck and networking.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the reply. The particular school goes to great length to ensure that the degree is exactly equivalent to the on campus version - no transcript notation of being online whatsoever. The only way to realize that it's online would be to look at the location of the school and ask how did you go there? Which is a legitimate concern I suppose.

Also, I am confident that it would make me eligible for the patent bar, for what it's worth.

Would it change the analysis if I could get accepted to an ivy league school for the same degree? I have considered applying to one - there are online ivy degrees, and same situation with degree equivalence. It would certainly be more prestigious than my other schools.

Part of this motivation on my part is a feeling of "treading water" in house. I essentially know that I'm not going to be promoted, possibly ever. And I can't leave the job for at least a little while, I have jumped around too much in my young career already. So I thought this could at least add *something* until it's time to see if biglaw would consider me again.

[jhett]

Part of this motivation on my part is a feeling of "treading water" in house. I essentially know that I'm not going to be promoted, possibly ever. And I can't leave the job for at least a little while, I have jumped around too much in my young career already. So I thought this could at least add *something* until it's time to see if biglaw would consider me again.

Unfortunately, this is an inherent part of in-house jobs. Moving up the ladder can be glacially slow, and usually the only way to shortcut it is to lateral to another in-house position. Apparently you have to stay put for a while, so is there a way to take on different kinds of work to buff up your resume? Companies like in-house counsel that are well rounded.

If you want to hop into private practice, perhaps the most organic way to do it is to make connections with the outside counsel you are currently working with (whether that be biglaw or a smaller firm), and then move over to their firm first. You can gain some firm experience, and perhaps lateral to biglaw if that is what you really want.

Would it change the analysis if I could get accepted to an ivy league school for the same degree? I have considered applying to one - there are online ivy degrees, and same situation with degree equivalence. It would certainly be more prestigious than my other schools.

Again, I do not think becoming qualified as a patent attorney will significantly help with your career goals. That said, it's your time and your money, so go ahead and do it if you are truly interested in learning CS. However, if you are doing so merely to boost your legal career, it very well may turn out to be a bust.

It seems like you are trying to prove something because you came from a "non-prestigious" background. I would suggest you stop chasing the illusory concept of "prestige" and just focus on improving yourself as a lawyer, no matter where you end up. If you do good work, people will notice, and opportunities will open up. You can be a very good and respected lawyer without ever having worked in biglaw. Besides, there is a chance you won't even like the biglaw environment once you're in.