Profile

My legal practice is a mixture of law, science and business. I get to help people protect their ideas. This includes inventions, trade secrets, trademarks, and other business deliverables. I also help companies ensure that they are not infringing other people’s patent, trademark or copyright rights.

Usually I am drafting and filing patent or trademark applications, responding to office actions from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to get a patent or trademark allowed, interacting with clients to identify their business needs and identify how their intellectual property strategy fits within their business objectives. Now that I am more senior in my practice, I also spend quite a bit of time doing client development.

I work in a private law firm, so it is a very professional environment. Most days, I am in my office, working on the computer, on the phone with clients, or engaged in client development activities. Much of my work can be done at home, so a few days a month I work from home.

Learn how to type! Writing, writing, writing. The ability to absorb technical information quickly. A patent application is a legal document, so you need to be able to convey technical information in an understandable way while also thinking about the legal ramifications of what you are writing. Attention to detail is a must.

To become a patent attorney, you must have a science/engineering degree or equivalent. Most of my colleagues have an engineering or science degree.

Once you have worked in practice for a while, your schedule can be very flexible. Especially in patent prosecution because it is project based and most deadlines are predictable.

Yes

I love learning about new technology; I admire the work that technologists, scientists, and engineers do. I am always amazed at the possibilities of technology. At the same time, I like being respected by technologists, scientists and engineers as a specialist in my field. I like contributing to a successful business venture. People generally value patent attorneys because it is such a specialized area of law. Also, Intellectual Property law is one of those areas that is constantly evolving, I like having to stay on my toes.

Building a business network is time consuming when you have billable hour requirements, so that can be difficult to juggle. There are times when the work gets mundane.

I am inspired by the energy of technology business. I love seeing a start up grow and seeing what value intellectual property can add to their business.

My teachers in middle school and high school always encouraged me into math and sciences. I also had a great group of girl friends in high school, most of whom went to college. Professors in college were always very respectful and encouraging.

Giving back to your community makes your practice more satisfactory. I have a few causes that I am passionate about and love spending time nurturing those causes.

Go where the money is.

It’s cool to be smart. The cheerleaders and drill team in high school had the highest GPA of any club. Some of my cheerleader/drill team friends are now software programmers, IT administrators, accountants, auditors, math teachers, and microbiologists.

I would take more personality tests and understand what motivates me, but recognizing that you still need to listen to that inner you. I think career counseling is much more advanced now. I remember taking a test in high school and being counseled that I should be a switch board operator. Clearly, that did not sit well with me. I would also spend more time building relationships. I was very focused on school, sometimes to the exclusion of relationships. Interestingly, client development is all about building relationships. I would have also benefited from taking some business classes to understand how tech business are built and operated.

Spend time with my husband and my two fun boys, support my causes, movies, shopping, social networking.

Building communities of professional women. I have done this with my law alumni and now with Women Tech Council. I value the relationships I build with other professional women, there is an instant bond. Professional women make such a great impact in the work place, I wish there were more!

First, I have an amazing husband who is not afraid to partner with me in parenting. I also have an amazing babysitter who I have used for the past 6 years.

I was able to negotiate a paid maternity leave for my second pregnancy. For both of my babies, I took 3 months FMLA leave and then returned at a part time status. However, I have worked full time for a majority of my practice, thanks to great support and a pretty flexible schedule.

My little soapbox: Now more than ever, law firms are realizing that women are an important asset in the workplace and, in many cases, usually the main source of income for their family. Many women leave private practice to go in-house in a company. When you think about this, this actually puts them in an important decision-making position because they are the one deciding which firms to hire. Many of these women also understand the difficulties of having a professional career with children, so may value diversity and actually give more preference to law firms that have diversity initiatives in place to retain women in the practice. As a good business practice, law firms should have policies in place (and public) with solid diversity initiatives and benchmarks on whether they are obtaining those goals.

If you plan on having a family, research whether the law firm has a published diversity initiative. The risk you take by not asking the question during the interview process and where it is not apparent that a firm has a diversity initiative is that you do not know how they will handle this issue. For a young attorney, it is a scary thing to have to be the one to bring up these issues after you have been hired! And if they can’t give you a satisfactory answer and you plan on having a family, then you probably won’t be happy at that firm in the long run.

I have always been a self-starter. I had wonderful middle and high school teachers that encouraged me into the math and sciences. I think they could see that I had good analytical skills. I took all the advanced science and math I could in high school and some college prep courses for college credit. I was the science sterling scholar in my school (a Utah student award program). I attended Engineering State at Utah State University which is where I first understood what an “engineer” really was. I received a couple of scholarships to the University of Utah. I still keep in touch with that great group of high school girl friends, most of them got college degrees.

I spent the summer after high school at an ACCESS program at the University of Utah for women in science and engineering. It was wonderful and I am still friends with many of those women today (most of which stayed in math or science careers). My senior year of college, I realized that my skill set wasn’t in hard-core engineering so I looked for a graduate program that might fit my skill set. I looked at MBA and law and decided on law. I considered both environmental law or patent law and did summer internships in both of those areas. I found patent law to be more exciting for me.

Law school was a very exciting, crazy and rewarding time. I met my husband and got married. I learned a lot, grew a lot, and met some great people. I was extensively involved in Moot Court, which really helped hone my public speaking abilities.

I spent the first 5 years as an associate drafting patent applications, responding to office actions, and began managing clients. I had two babies during this time. I feel like they really helped to ground me and my priorities. I worked part time and full time during these years. Shortly after I had my second child, I was offered a full time partnership and decided to take the leap. It has been rewarding and opened up more client development opportunities than before.

During this time, I was always very active in the community. I started a women’s alumni association at my law school and later helped found Women Tech Council. I also taught as an Adjunct Professor at BYU Law School in two different IP courses. I really enjoy being able to give back, build relationships, and learn about tech business in Utah.