Choosing an area of law to pursue Forum

[ckyo01]

Hey everyone, I am sort of a mess at the moment trying to figure out my career.

For background I am a 1L at a t20 with a moderate scholarship, political science major in undergrad.

It's about that time to choose a specialization if we would like, and it's got me thinking about career paths. I've been so focused on grades that I'm forgetting what I'm here for.

I got a 3.1 in the Fall so I feel as if I am already out of biglaw, which was one of my original goals.

The choices that interest me are patent litigation, corporate law (M&A), entertainment.

My question is whether or not it would be worthwhile to specialize in IP law without a technical background. It is my understanding that one could be a patent litigation lawyer without a technical background, but is that even a desirable position? Should I abandon the notion of "IP law"?

Re corporate law, is it pretty much biglaw or bust? How can I get my foot in the door with a low GPA like mine?

Sorry for so many questions, I'm just feeling a bit lost right now. Thank you for any advice.

[Londonbear]

I think you can still do many other corporate work in midlaw and small law. But if you want to do M&A, BigLaw is the best place to go for technical training and better exit options. You still have time to boost up your GPA. There's lot of posts about boosting up your GPA in the Spring, so I'm not going to go into that. Basically, focus on classes this semester, and try your best to get into main journal. And make the best out of your summer internship so you can talk about it in interviews. I found my summer internship helped me tremendously since I was at a firm that did corporate work. (It was not an SA.) I came back and I think many of the firms were impressed about my summer experience because I could articulate about the substantive work, why I wanted to do corporate work and that I understood the lifestyle and expectations in BigLaw. You seem less of a risky hire that way. I also was able to make some great contacts that helped me to get interviews and eventually an offer at one of the firms. You are not out of the running. If your school has a sheet on GPA range for BigLaw firms, then I would look at it to get a sense of where you might need to boost it up to. Also over the summer there will be a flurry of emails about BigLaw networking events (I don't know if this is the same at your school, but it was at mine). If you have time, go to some of them and network. I do have my reservations about how useful they are, but it doesn't hurt if you have the time.

IP without technical background is really difficult to crack into, as many posting for IP requires technical backgrounds. I know of one person who managed to do it without but she was already in the law firm when she decided on that path. I don't think you should abandoned it, but I don't think you'll get the advantage at OCI that IPs with technical backgrounds have.

Don't feel lost, just get focused on what you need to do now. It's all still very possible. Just requires a lot of hustling and work. Take it one at a time, like right now, just focus on finals, then after finals, you focus on journal, then you focus on your internship, then you focus on OCI, and so on... Break down the steps so you're focused and don't get overwhelmed. Good luck!