How I got a Job in Law

(you never get anything unless you ask)

I was a junior at The Ohio State University studying Electrical Engineering mainly because my father was an electrical engineer, and I had no better plan. However, while the subject was interesting, it was also apparent that I did want to actually do this for a living. Being a lawyer seemed a cool idea, although I didn't know anyone who was a lawyer and had never met a lawyer. Someone suggested that I become a patent lawyer. I had only a glimmer of what a patent was or a patent attorney did so it seemed to me that a good plan would be to get a job for the summer working in a law firm where there were patent attorneys, and I would find out. I found a book with law firms listed and wrote, with the aid of my cousin, to 100 law firms asking for a summer job.

Most didn't reply. A couple said I should work as an engineer for a few years and then go to law school. The rest, save one, sent a one-sentence rejection. One partner in a Washington firm wrote that they had no positions, but if I were ever in Washington I should stop by. I was so naïve that this actually sounded promising to me, and I called him to say I just happened to be in Washington the following week. He didn't seem very enthusiastic, but he had said he would see me. I drove overnight to Washington to avoid the cost of a hotel room, and showed up at 9 am at their offices.

I told him I would take anything and do anything; I just wanted to become a patent attorney. Fortunately, he didn't inquire very closely why that was the case, because I didn't have an answer. Finally he said that I could work in their search department for $100 a week. I took it despite the fact I needed more money than that.

And so I became a patent searcher. Happily this was an the beginning of the semi-conductor revolution and I was the only one who had the vaguest idea what this was all about, so I got the searches, the boss got the credit and everyone was happy. Based on my summer experience, Washington DC seemed the place to be so I applied and was admitted to both GW and Georgetown the following year. The firm hired me full time as patent searcher at the lordly salary of $7500 a year, not great even at the time. I graduated a quarter early so I started in March.

Patent Searching is a really interesting thing to do, for about three months after which it is boring and repetitive, so the first thing I did was to look for some way to get to a better patent place and make more money.

Another searcher who has already passed the bar was studying for this exam called the PTO exam in April, a month hence. I asked her what it was all about and she told me the story, including the fact that you didn't have to be attorney to give it a try. It struck me that if I passed this exam I could talk someone into letting me try patent prosecution and when I mastered that I could move from the sixth floor search office to the eight floor aerie where the associates dwelled, and I could make more money. I told her I wanted to try this exam. She ridiculed me saying that it required months of work and real experience. I bet her I would pass.

I didn't have much time so I had to make the best of what I had. There was a file of fifteen or twenty old exams in the search department. I got them and I borrowed an MPEP that seemed to be the key. You had to actually draft claims so I got another searcher to teach me the rudiments of claim drafting. I just memorized every part of the MPEP that seemed to be featured in old exam questions, and showed up loose and ready to rock and roll on the exam. I passed, she didn't, and she hated me forever. Later she became an examiner, happily in the chemical art so I saw her infrequently.

It worked. I talked someone into letting me try an amendment and by the time I finished law school four years later I had written and prosecuted hundreds of applications, and was a fair-haired boy on the partnership track. I spent a lot of time those four years helping others in the law firm prepare for the exam.

The best way to prepare for this exam turns out to exactly what I did by intuition those many years ago. As an old partner of mine once said, it's better to be lucky than good.

Jim Longacre
September 23, 2001