How has your career path unfolded since graduating?
The day of graduation, I skipped and took the patent bar. The nice thing about the patent bar is that you know right away whether you passed, so I was able to put that on my resume. About a week after sending out my updated resume, I received an offer from an IP boutique in New York City. I have a life sciences background, and so about 85% of my job was patent prosecution work for life sciences clients, with the balance being mostly litigation support. The clients I was assigned to were varied, but were mostly university tech transfer offices with licensed cases, large pharmaceutical companies, and other institutional research centers.
That first firm had a very sink-or-swim culture. Expectations were high, but I received an unparalleled education in patent work. While there, I saw the rise of patent office proceedings (e.g., IPRs), the fallout from Alice, the varied considerations for portfolios with international and licensed components, and the turns things take when litigation arises. After spending 4-5 years at that firm, I lateralled to my current position.
Where do you currently work?
I am now a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP and am based in our New York office.
What law tasks do you perform in your current role?
Much the same as my first firm, in that a lot of my day is spent on patent prosecution matters. However, our life sciences and patent practices also represent venture funds, meaning that I handle aspects of due diligence, freedom-to-operate, and the like as these funds seek out companies and technologies for investment, purchase, merging, etc.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Hopefully, I’m still at Brown Rudnick, as I really like the team we have grown.
What is your favorite memory from law school?
While in law school, I met my wife, so that has to make the list. Otherwise, having my parents attend the CALI awards ceremony for receiving the top grade in some of my classes.
How has the Innovation Law Center prepared you for your career or current position?
The Innovation Law Center helped me to see the “business” of a client. It is easy to get siloed into a specialty in law, but a client is not an IP portfolio. Considering things like budgets, business considerations, and other facets of law can be critical to providing the best client service. As lawyers, we all want to win, in IP that might mean convincing or appealing a tough examiner, squeezing the best possible license terms, or challenging all potential patent infringers. From the viewpoint of a client, their attorney thinking they have won the day might not be in their best interest. For example, capitulating a point to a tough examiner for a quicker and more affordable patent allowance, maintaining positive relations with a license counterparty, and ensuring a transaction proceeds, or being strategic about when to get involved in patent litigation, may all serve certain clients better. The ILC sets a foundation for how to counsel clients from the bigger picture.
What does being a member of the SU College of Law alumni community mean to you?
Usually, it gives me a rooting interest in March.
Outside of your work as a lawyer, what are you passionate about?
I love spending time on the water—boating, fishing, sailing, kayaking, diving, etc. Luckily, NYC is an archipelago with the Atlantic, Long Island Sound, the Hudson, and the East River surrounding it. It also has about 2 extra months of warm weather relative to Syracuse or my hometown of Buffalo. My family spends as much time as we can on our boat during the summer, and I usually put my kayak away around Thanksgiving.
What advice do you have for law students looking to enter your field?
For IP lawyers, learn the MPEP (Manual of Patent Examining and Procedure). Not just to the extent needed for passing the patent bar, but really learn it. Otherwise, for all law students and lawyers, you need to network. It can be easy after a long day in class or the office to skip that networking event. However, it is the best way to develop job opportunities, potential clients, and intra-firm contacts. But like any skill, networking takes practice, so try to take advantage of all the opportunities you can.