The best career for any individual is, of course, one that they
love. For some with a chemical engineering degree, that means
becoming a practicing chemical engineer and designing new products
and processes. But chemical engineers have a wide diversity of
other possible career choices, including medicine, consulting, and
law.
In the legal field, chemical engineers are particularly
well-suited for roles such as patent prosecutors or litigators.
Patent prosecutors and counselors analyze complex problems daily,
break them down to their core elements, and persuasively suggest
business-minded solutions to top-level management in the C-suite.
Patent litigators protect manufacturers’ technology and defend
their freedom to use those technologies in court.
Chemical engineers who are considering a career in the legal
profession may be surprised to learn just how fun the career can
be. It’s a career that I fell in love with, and many others I
spoke with in preparing this article agree: a career in law is one
that they love and think you might too. Read on to learn what
chemical engineers in the legal field love about their jobs, the
engineering skills that help them excel in those roles, and some of
the perks of a legal career.
Legal employment ranges from working for a company (i.e.,
in-house), to working for a private law firm, to working for a
government agency such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
(PTO). Within each type of employment, a wide range of positions
are available for someone with an engineering background.
Technology specialists assist patent agents and attorneys in
understanding specific technologies. Patent agents work with
inventors to obtain patents from examiners at the PTO — a
process called patent prosecution, which is not to be confused with
criminal prosecution. Intellectual property (IP) attorneys
prosecute patent applications, counsel clients about IP strategy,
and protect manufacturers’ technology. IP litigators defend a
client’s freedom to use their technology in court. Each type of
position and employer has subtle differences that make them fun and
interesting in different ways.
Patent prosecution is the process of drafting patent
applications that describe and claim an invention, and then filing
those applications with the PTO in hopes of eventually obtaining an
issued patent. Once filed, the patent applications are assigned to
an examiner (i.e., a person at the PTO who has a technical
background in the technology that is the subject of the
application) who then reviews the application to ensure it is
allowable. Claims define the bounds of the invention that will be
protected if it becomes a patent. An examiner will often reject the
claims of an application. A rejection then requires that the patent
prosecutor (the agent or attorney) either convince the examiner
that the rejection was improper or amend the claims so that they
will be allowed. Many patent prosecutors revel in this back and
forth with the examiner and describe it as if they were playing a
game.
Rachel Lin, an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School and
Counsel at Tarter Krinsky & Drogin in New York, NY, says,
“I like the back-and-forth moves and countermoves with the
patent office.” As an undergraduate at Princeton Univ.,
Lin’s favorite part of working in the lab was writing up a
report after all the experiments were completed. Her love of
writing translated well to talking with inventors, writing up their
work in a form acceptable to the patent office, and then
strategizing how to draft the claims. According to Lin, “it
becomes almost like a game of strategy with the patent office to
anticipate what rejections the examiner will make and to know how
to respond to those rejections.”
Jason Ploeger, a patent agent at Air Products who holds a PhD in
chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), likens prosecution more to “a word puzzle,” where
he constantly asks: “What does each word mean?”
Brandon Blackwell, another MIT PhD chemical engineer and a
Shareholder at Wolf Greenfield in Boston, drew the analogy to a
game of chess where “you are always trying to think two or
three steps ahead of your opponent. In playing the game, you may
need to make some sacrifices, but you are always trying to keep
your eye on winning the end game for your client.”
Whether working at a law firm or for a company inhouse, patent
prosecution can offer the same excitement and strategy of playing a
game day in and day out.
Patent litigators enforce the patents that the prosecutors
obtained — protecting the patents’ owners against
infringers (i.e., individuals and companies that practice the
patented invention without permission) — and defend the
falsely accused. A litigation team may consist of several
individuals, including technology specialists who are experts in a
particular field, patent attorneys, testifying and consulting
expert witnesses, and a variety of support staff.
Litigation is the legal profession’s closest thing to waging
war. Litigators speak in terms of “torpedoing the enemy”
and “crushing” their opponents. While litigation often
involves long and unpredictable hours, the fun reward in litigation
is the win after all the hard work.
gation is the win after all the hard work. A win can take many
different shapes. Winning may mean delivering a jury verdict for
millions of dollars. A win might mean overturning that verdict on
appeal or negotiating a favorable settlement before the case ever
gets to trial. Often though, victories come in smaller forms, such
as spending a week of sleepless nights searching for and finding a
particularly good prior art article — one that predates a
later issued patent asserted in a litigation — to invalidate
the asserted patent. Other small wins could include putting
together a winning oral argument for a motion or even prying an
admission out of a reluctant witness. In each instance, a
significant amount of hard work pays off in a single moment,
bringing meaning to that work.
For some, nothing is more fun than the battles waged during
litigations, and those who love litigation would gladly give up the
more predictable schedules and lifestyle of a patent prosecutor in
a heartbeat. If litigation sounds terrifying, you may be better
suited to a life working in-house or with a government agency.
Working for a company in-house can be a great fit for those
looking for a more predictable way of life that still delivers a
rewarding career in law. In-house patent agents and attorneys are
often called upon to answer interesting, challenging, and varied
questions from their internal clients. Variety can be a fun perk
when working in-house.
“Variety is the spice of life,” says Patricia Ades, an
AIChE member and in-house attorney at J.M. Huber. Ades began her
career at an environmental engineering firm, but a restructuring
gave her the opportunity to rethink her direction. She went to law
school and was hooked on IP law from her first class on patents.
Today, Ades works on a variety of IP-related work, including IP
licensing agreements, merger and acquisition work, and litigation.
Ades explains that “practicing chemical engineering on an
assembly line, you see variations on a theme,” but as an IP
attorney, “I get to work with different technologies and a
variety of people on a regular basis.” She enjoys seeing many
different problems and the creativity required to solve them in a
practical way.
Jason Ploeger also enjoys a wide variety of work as a patent
agent at Air Products. “I enjoy sitting down with inventors
and asking the dumb questions. If an inventor tells me a product
stream is split in two, I ask, ‘Why just two? Why not three or
four?'” The sheer number of engineer and scientist
inventors that Ploeger supports ensures a constant stream of new
ideas and IP that he helps protect for his company.
Other benefits of working in-house include not having to track
billable hours and a more predictable lifestyle, including the
ability to plan vacations without fear that an onslaught of work
will unexpectedly arrive just as the vacation is about to
start.
Not only is work in the legal profession fun, but many of the
skills that make a good chemical engineer can also make a good
lawyer.
Analyzing complex problems. If a complex technical
problem needs a solution, chemical engineers have the training and
experience to solve it.
When I was a product development engineer at 3M, I was routinely
tasked to think critically about how to improve the throughput or
yield of a process, or perhaps a product’s performance. I had
to come up with a hypothesis about how the improvement could be
achieved and then test that hypothesis to see if I was right, which
included developing a project plan and estimating key milestones
for phase-gate reviews. I then used Six Sigma methodologies to
design experiments, collect data into spreadsheets, and analyze the
data to prove (or disprove) the hypothesis.
It turns out that those skills are the same ones that are useful
as a lawyer. Most legal issues have a set of elements that must be
satisfied to establish something to be true — very much akin
to proving a technical hypothesis. For example, for a product to
infringe a patent claim, the accused product must meet each and
every element recited in the claim. But how do you know if it does?
You know by testing the product to see if it meets the claim
elements and carefully reviewing the product’s documentation
(manufacturing processes, specifications, user manuals, etc.) to
muster the evidence needed to evaluate whether each claim element
is met. This is just one example — the law is full of such
element-by-element analysis.
ch element-by-element analysis. “Lawyers need a
problem-solving mindset,” says Ades. “They need to be
methodical, and have the same inclinations as an
investigator.” In addition, being an IP attorney requires you
to dig into the technology and know what questions to ask, she
asserts.
Rachel Lin adds that proficiency in Excel can be helpful.
“Data from inventors is routinely presented in Excel and needs
to be shown and explained in the context of a patent
application,” she explains.
An engineer’s mastery of problem solving, the scientific
method, and data analysis are all readily transferable to solving
legal problems
Explaining technology to laypeople. Also readily
transferable is an engineer’s ability to explain highly complex
technology to others who have no technical training whatsoever.
When I worked as a marketer after my engineering career, I was
astounded by how little my fellow marketers understood about the
technology of the products for which they were responsible. I found
myself explaining the technology to my coworkers (and then
customers) in readily understandable terms using real-world
analogies. Those same skills have become valuable as a lawyer not
only when I need to explain complex technology to laypeople, but
also when I need to explain the law in readily understandable terms
to business people, jurors, and judges.
Jason Ploeger remarks that “anyone can explain a technical
or legal concept if given 40 minutes, but not many can provide the
same level of explanation if given only four minutes, and
exceptionally few can do it in four seconds —
An engineer’s mastery of problem solving, the scientific
method, and data analysis are all readily transferable to solving
legal problems.
the trick is in honing your communication skills to be one of
those few that can do it in four seconds.”
Being succinct has value. I recently participated in a mock
trial where laypeople were presented with opposing sides of a
patent infringement case. The mock jurors were then video recorded
to see what resonated with them. In their discussions, they better
internalized short explanations using real-world analogies over
longer explanations, even if the short version came at the cost of
omitting some of the technical complexity that we engineers
love.
Whether the listener is a business person, juror, or judge,
laypeople demand a succinct and understandable explanation of the
technology or law before their attention wanders. Chemical
engineers often already have the valued skill of communicating the
highly complex in simple and succinct terms.
Perseverance and a touch of healthy skepticism. Rarely
does every experiment work or every hypothesis turn out to be true.
Engineers are thus instilled with a level of perseverance and
skepticism to see a project through and ensure that scientific
conclusions are scientifically supported by data. The same is
required of those in the legal profession.
Tom West, a registered patent agent who has an MS in chemical
engineering from Rutgers Univ. and extensive experience with
start-up companies, explains that engineers are “trained to
think logically and objectively — a mental discipline that
can be applied to the legal context.” He adds that “if
most people were to pick up the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR),
their eyes would glaze over. However, engineers have experience
reading and understanding complex documents, which is useful for
reviewing regulations in the CFR for patent law and for other legal
specialties as well.”
Patricia Ades agrees: “Engineers who become attorneys tend
to be more objective than other attorneys due to their technical
training — they see all sides of an issue.” Jason
Ploeger describes this trait as the “engineering
instinct.”
Although, as Ades notes, “every career has its warts,”
a legal career has several other perks beyond its fun, fastpaced
nature.
Learn cutting-edge technology without a day in the lab. As
engineers, we love learning about unfamiliar technology, but
sometimes running all those designed experiments can be less than
fun. Working as a product development engineer at 3M, I averaged
one patentable invention per year. Now, as an IP attorney, I get to
learn about new-to-the-world technology on a daily basis. A career
in law allows exposure to new technologies that you would never
have dreamt about, and you do not even need to be the one who
invents them.
Often, there are no strings attached to get started.
What many people do not know is that it is often possible to dip
your toes into a legal career without any strings attached.
If you are still in college or getting an advanced degree, most
universities have a tech-transfer office that looks to monetize the
intellectual property that the university owns. They may have
part-time jobs for students where you can get actual experience in
analyzing IP and get paid for it at the same time.
If you are currently working in industry, seek out the person or
department that is in charge of your company’s IP. At a
minimum, you can ask about the work they do and their experiences
in an informational interview. Or, better yet, ask them if you can
get involved. Tasks typically include working with inventors to
draft invention disclosure documents, reviewing competitors’
patents as part of a freedomto-operate analysis, and reviewing the
company’s own IP to ensure that it is protecting all that it
can and should be. Such experience can help inform you as to
whether a legal career is right for you.
Lastly, several well-known law firms (including my own) offer
technology specialist programs where individuals with a technical
degree are trained as patent agents and are paid to go to law
school part-time. You will eventually become a patent lawyer
without ever paying a dime for law school. Even if you later decide
that you don’t like the work, there is virtually no downside
because you will have no law school loans to repay, and you could
always go back to your role in research, teaching, or industry.
And, you might even be more valuable in those career paths with
your experience in a law firm. Few other careers offer such a
“try-beforeyou-buy” approach.
To view the full article click here
Originally published by Chemical Engineering Progress
(CEP)
The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.
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