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To what extent does your undergrad GPA factor in to getting hired for IP work, either as a summer associate or following graduation? Do they use undergrad GPA as a pre-screening tool for OCI at all, or is it just something that might come up during the actual interview? Would they even care about undergrad GPA if you have a PhD with a 4.0 in the hard sciences and lots of publications? Thanks!

It depends on what type of IP.

For IP litigation, your law school and grades matter a lot. If you don't have tippy top grades from a non-T14 or something like top 1/3 grades from a T14, you probably don't have a great shot at getting an IP litigation job. Firms probably won't care as much about your PhD if you want to do IP litigation.

For patent prosecution, your technical background matters a lot, but so does your law school and law school GPA. A PhD in chemistry, any type of engineering, physics, computer science, or certain biology-related majors would make you highly desirable for patent prosecution firms.

Thanks for the insight!

Biglaw_Associate_V20 wrote:It depends on what type of IP.

For IP litigation, your law school and grades matter a lot. If you don't have tippy top grades from a non-T14 or something like top 1/3 grades from a T14, you probably don't have a great shot at getting an IP litigation job. Firms probably won't care as much about your PhD if you want to do IP litigation.

For patent prosecution, your technical background matters a lot, but so does your law school and law school GPA. A PhD in chemistry, any type of engineering, physics, computer science, or certain biology-related majors would make you highly desirable for patent prosecution firms.

I would amend the part about IP lit and say that you probably only need above median grades if you're in the T14 or slightly below.

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As mentioned above, clearly law school grades matter A LOT, but what about undergrad grades? Do these ever come up prior to or during interviews? Do they even care, especially if you have a graduate degree in the field?

fltanglab wrote:

Biglaw_Associate_V20 wrote:It depends on what type of IP.

For IP litigation, your law school and grades matter a lot. If you don't have tippy top grades from a non-T14 or something like top 1/3 grades from a T14, you probably don't have a great shot at getting an IP litigation job. Firms probably won't care as much about your PhD if you want to do IP litigation.

For patent prosecution, your technical background matters a lot, but so does your law school and law school GPA. A PhD in chemistry, any type of engineering, physics, computer science, or certain biology-related majors would make you highly desirable for patent prosecution firms.

I would amend the part about IP lit and say that you probably only need above median grades if you're in the T14 or slightly below.

Shit, you can be significantly below median if you have a decently in demand background.

mx23250 wrote:As mentioned above, clearly law school grades matter A LOT, but what about undergrad grades? Do these ever come up prior to or during interviews? Do they even care, especially if you have a graduate degree in the field?

Maybe half the firms I interviewed with asked. And almost all who asked seemed to care.