Conversation with a PhD Patent Attorney

I had a very interesting conversation with a practicing patent attorney who has a chemistry PhD. I had a few questions for him. My first was which law schools are good for patent law. I know what US News says about this, but I was curious what an insider (who has been involved in recruiting) has to say about it. He was very high on GMU (which I found surprising) and GW (which isn't too surprising). He rated GW as the best school for patent law. I thought that was an interesting wrinkle. Everybody is so high on Cal for patents. This guy is on the east coast. It's easy to forget how regional law is when looking at national rankings. If you're on the east coast and are interesting in patent law, why go all the way to Cal (if you can get in) when you can stay close to the Atlantic and go to GW or GMU?

I also asked him about the market for patent attorneys. It is no secret that law students are having a hard time finding jobs (read more about the legal job market here), but can that generalization be extended to those who have suffered through a graduate program? The way he put, if 3 or 4 of 10 people in a class have a position at graduation, it will be more like 8 or 9 of 10 people with a technical background will have an offer. That technical background is important. My take away is that there is definitely an advantage to have a PhD when it comes to finding a job. This guy was able to get a summer associate position as a 1L with a big firm in DC because he had a technical degree. Granted this was when the economy was better, but I think it illustrates that having something rare, like a technical PhD, does make it easier to separate yourself from the crowd and find a job.

From my very limited experience with studying law (mostly from conversations with my brother about his classes), it sounds like there are parallels between preparing a research paper and legal writing. In science you use other papers to build your case for a particular interpretation of some data. The law also uses citations, but previously decided cases are used as the research material. I asked if my impression of this relationship was valid. There are overlaps in this type of skill. The real advantage to the graduate degree is training in analytical thinking. Firms like that you have that background in thinking hard about a problem and finding a solution.

It was a very enlightening conversation. It was very refreshing to get an inside view of the industry rather than relying on the Internet, especially from somebody with a similar background. I'm trying to get as much information as I can to make sure that this is the right move for my career. This conversation makes me very comfortable with the decision.