Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: IP law as a profession

You can count on long days and long nights to start, esp. if you go to work for a large law firm. You'll be well paid for it, but you will not have a life for several years.

You can count on reasonable days and reasonable nights if you go to work for a corporation. You'll get less money but you will have a life.

You can count on incredibly long days and even longer nights if you go solo for the first several years. Your money will be based solely on what you bring in and you can have a life if you work efficiently and you market yourself well. This option carries no employer-paid benefits (health insurance, professional malpractice insurance, employer-paid tax withholding matches, etc.).

You can count on studying for at least 200 hours for the patent bar; if you can get that under your belt before law school, that would stand you in excellent stead (you don't have to have gone to law school to sit for the patent bar; you do have to have graduated from college with at least a C average in a hard science or engineering discipline).

Be aware that at a school like Duke, everyone had a terrific undergrad GPA. Terrific there is AVERAGE. This equals a lot of C's in the first year. Cs will get you very little in the way of employment. Be sure to listen to your legal writing instructor; s/he will tell you (very indirectly) exactly what the professors are looking for in the dreaded law-school essay questions.

Good luck!

Nancy Delain, Registered Patent Attorney

THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND IS NOT INTENDED, NOR SHOULD IT BE CONSTRUED, AS LEGAL ADVICE. THIS POSTING DOES NOT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN US. FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.