law school before getting a science degree Forum

[kblueboi]

I'm currently in law school and I may have interest in becoming a patent attorney. The problem is I don't have a BS. Anybody ever hear of people getting a law degree before they go and get their science degree through a post-bacc program?

[furcifer]

You can take electives in IP while at law school and still be able to practice other fields of law if you decide you don't want to latter. You might find you like other fields better, so of course the JD is a good idea if you want to practice law since it lets you do more than the patent bar could do on it's own. So given a choice of which degree to go for first, yeah go for the JD.

As for Patent Bar, I believe you can get a masters in science and be ok to sit it as long as your total # of science credits add up in the right areas. You can get a joint degree in a science field if you are super ambitious (but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are super sure about it)

Here are a few examples of joint JD/Science degrees (that also have obvious additional uses as well)

--LinkRemoved-- Joint JD/MD (offered at multiple locations, this is just one example of a school that offers it)

http://www.cop.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploa ... ees/jd.pdf PharmD/JD Joint Degree Program

[furcifer]

This would probably be the one you would be most interested in though.

http://www.law.stanford.edu/program/degrees/joint/mse/

A joint degree in law and Management Science & Engineering (MS&E)

[PolySuyGuy]

I'm currently in law school and I may have interest in becoming a patent attorney. The problem is I don't have a BS. Anybody ever hear of people getting a law degree before they go and get their science degree through a post-bacc program?

Yes, I know of an IP law faculty member who send her husband back to school to get a science degree so that he could become a patent attorney. He was already an attorney.

[anonymouse2828]

"technical background" requirements don't necessarily mean "BS." Some employers require BS in EE/CS/ME, some don't.

Depends on what you want to do. For the PatBar, you can get by with enough credits (32 in physics of chem, or 40 total w/ 8 in physics or chem).

Another option is to do law school p/t, and spend the other part of your day fulfilling the remainder of those 32 or 40 units. However, if you're a humanities person, I dunno how easy it will be for you to suddenly have to start studying chem/physics/advanced calculus/etc...

[yuzu]

A joint degree in law and Management Science & Engineering (MS&E)

While MS&E is a great program, I highly doubt it meets the USPTO's patent bar eligibility requirements unless you already have a lot of science credits. See the General Requirements Bulletin.