Love Litigating Lawyers Day 2024 is on Saturday, August 31, 2024: How will you celebrate? Religious and Spiritual holiday of great importance alert.?

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Are lawyers a necessary evil? Celebrate the contribution of lawyers to maintaining a civilised society on Love Litigating Lawyers Day, regardless of how unpopular we generally consider these to be…

I'll have a big argument with myself over whether I'm guilty or not guilty.!

question for patent lawyer/attorney on career?

1. It's great if you like science. For one thing, you get to work in a lot of different scientific areas instead of getting pigeonholed into one area. Second, you make a lot more money than you ever would as an engineer or scientist. In those fields you often have to stop doing science and get into management in order to advance past a certain point. As a patent attorney you can advance as far as you like and still get to do the interesting work.

2. There are so many different areas you can go into, it's hard to say. You can do patent application preparation and prosecution, you can do transactional work, you can work in acquisitions and due diligence, you can work in licensing, infringement and validity analysis, litigation, writing appeals -- the list is endless. Also your experience will be different depending on whether you choose to work for a corporation or in a law firm.

3. Biochemistry is a good field to be in if you intend to be a patent attorney, because patent attorneys with degrees in biochemistry are in demand. Whether biochemical, chemical, or electrical/mechanical engineers are more in demand varies year-to-year, but don't let that worry you. Take the course of study you love the most; that's the best way to ensure success whether you go on to be an intellectual property or patent attorney, or whether you stay in the scientific field itself. Patent attorneys have usually majored in electrical or mechanical (especially electrical) engineering, chemistry, biology, or biochemistry. I majored in physics.

4. I don't know what the starting salary is these days. When I started in 1993 in Washington, DC I started at $70,000/year at a law firm, but I'm sure the starting salary is much higher than that now.

5. In the United States, yes, you need to be a lawyer in order to become a patent attorney, as well as have a bachelors degree in a scientific field. So of course you have to go to law school. You could be just a patent agent with only a scientific degree, without going to law school, but they usually get paid much less -- when they can get work. Also, any attorney can be a litigator, and litigate intellectual property (patent, copyright, trademark, etc.) cases even if they haven't had a technical degree!

6. Most people take the patent "bar exam" soon after starting work for a law firm or corporation. I took it my final year in law school, which I believe helped me in my job search.

7. Most law students who want to go into intellectual property law get a summer internship at an intellectual property law firm after their second year in law school.

Will there be decent employment prospects for an entertainment lawyer, and is this area interesting?

Entertainment law sounds a lot more interesting than it actually is, it's like practicing any other type of law. Some attorneys do contracts (called transactional or corporate law), some litigate. There are both types of entertainment attorneys. Generally, if you work in biglaw you work for corporations, like studios, and if you work at smaller firms, you work for the talent. Some attorneys practice IP law, intellectual property, which is a whole different ballgame, but some consider it entertainment law. Some attorneys work in-house for studios, shorter hours than law firms, but the pay is low.

Entertainment law is a very competitive field, because attorneys want to get into it, thinking it will be glamorous. It's not. Talent often doesn't pay, even when you win their case, apparently you should be honored just to work for them. (OK, not all, but it is a big problem!) Working for the studios is just like working for any other big corporation. Often attorneys will not only do entertainment law, but other types of law as well.

Right now first year attorneys at biglaw make $160,000 plus bonus, although because of the economy they may start lower soon, maybe $140,000 and bonuses may be on hold for a year or so. At a small or medium firm in LA a first year attorney might make $80,000 - $100,000, or even less. Biglaw has been mostly lockstep compensation, although that may change for a few years. Generally, a 7th year at biglaw would make around $240,000 plus bonus, maybe $40,000+ for those with good billing hours (over 2100).

If you want to be considered for a biglaw job out of school, you basically must go to a top tier law school. Being an attorney is generally a 12 hour a day job, if you want any success or if you work at biglaw. Except for the worst years, one can expect to bill at least 2000 hours, and even right now I know plenty of attorneys who are on track for that or more. While hours may be shorter at smaller firms, the compensation will be much less. And you'll probably have law school debt to pay....

You should see about getting an intern job at a firm or at least spending some time at a firm to see if it's the direction you want to go in. It's a lot of work, sometimes painfully boring (especially at first, boxes and boxes of documents to go through every day), but some love it.

Good luck!