I am an IP litigation/patent associate looking to make the leap into Tech Trans. I'm mostly sure I want to do it, but am a bit concerned about whether I know enough about the business side of things to succeed. I have worked on patent licensing so that aspect of Tech Trans wouldnt be that new to me, but I know there's other deal work.
Can someone please tell me what kinds assignments you do in Tech Trans? What is the day to day like? What might I need reinforcement on if I'm an IP Lit/patent associate making the transition?
A Day in the Life of a Tech/IP Trans Associate? Forum
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Anonymous User
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maxiguess
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Re: A Day in the Life of a Tech/IP Trans Associate?
Second/Third year tech trans here. My sense is there is a lot of variance between firms. My practice group generates most of our own work in the nature of large scale EHR or HR systems implementations and IT outsourcing, etc. - predominantly on the customer side. We also get smaller MSA and SaaS agreements from general transactional partners who are smart enough to know they have no clue what the agreements are supposed to be doing, plus some privacy policies/terms of use/etc. I do some diligence, but it is relatively sparse. At many firms however, TT exists mainly to support M&A. Many firms also advertise a TT practice, but there may only be a couple of attorneys fully devoted to the group.
As a somewhat typical sample of a day, here was my schedule today (times approximate):
8-9: Call with partner re statutory and lit concerns in connection with client's AI product
9-9:45: Revise IT reps & warranties on an acquisition with material DFARS and PCI-DSS concerns
10-12: Respond to MSA revisions from client's customer; calls with client re risks
1-6:45: Negotiations with vendor in connection with analytics SOW on a very large agreement, plus follow up calls and emails
8-9:30: Review various agreements in connection with client's data migration and maintenance fee concerns.
I can say I have never needed any patent knowledge for my work. There are partners that focus heavily on medtech or bio deals that involve a good deal of patent licensing but that is not typically seen as a TT function or specialty, at least at my firm.
Overall, project management and an understanding of the business concerns of the clients are very helpful in TT - get a subscription to HBR. Lots of clients want to grow their tech footprint but don't really understand why (although client sophistication sometimes really surprises me) and may not have the resources or environment to make the solutions they want valuable. Vendor behavior is also extremely predictable and clients need to be coached through the active management their contracts will require - especially true for large implementations contracts that may be 1000 pages or more once the exhibits are accounted for.
These are just some scattered thoughts I am writing to procrastinate on a SOW I need to turn by the weekend. If you have other questions feel free to reply.
As a somewhat typical sample of a day, here was my schedule today (times approximate):
8-9: Call with partner re statutory and lit concerns in connection with client's AI product
9-9:45: Revise IT reps & warranties on an acquisition with material DFARS and PCI-DSS concerns
10-12: Respond to MSA revisions from client's customer; calls with client re risks
1-6:45: Negotiations with vendor in connection with analytics SOW on a very large agreement, plus follow up calls and emails
8-9:30: Review various agreements in connection with client's data migration and maintenance fee concerns.
I can say I have never needed any patent knowledge for my work. There are partners that focus heavily on medtech or bio deals that involve a good deal of patent licensing but that is not typically seen as a TT function or specialty, at least at my firm.
Overall, project management and an understanding of the business concerns of the clients are very helpful in TT - get a subscription to HBR. Lots of clients want to grow their tech footprint but don't really understand why (although client sophistication sometimes really surprises me) and may not have the resources or environment to make the solutions they want valuable. Vendor behavior is also extremely predictable and clients need to be coached through the active management their contracts will require - especially true for large implementations contracts that may be 1000 pages or more once the exhibits are accounted for.
These are just some scattered thoughts I am writing to procrastinate on a SOW I need to turn by the weekend. If you have other questions feel free to reply.
