I entered law school in 2010, with the biggest crop of law students before or since.
It was the depths of the Great Financial Crisis, and job prospects were dire. So law students were desperate to claw their way into law firms by clerking for them during law school. That often meant working 20 hours a week to try to secure a job, when there was no guarantee.
Patent law was one of the few areas that was busy. In my third semester, I had an opportunity to join a growing boutique with an unusual practice. I got a role at an unusual law firm that was doing some cutting-edge work in patent law - patent auctions, brokering patent sales, and monetization campaigns for non-practicing entities (trying to shake down big tech companies on behalf of various patent trolls).
The founders were brilliant lawyers with traditional law firm and in-house backgrounds, and most had ties to a top law firm. Opportunities to clerk in law school were scarce, particularly in patent law, so I was highly motivated to get experience with a crew of entrepreneurial lawyers.
The opportunity at this law firm - and the risks
It was an unusual time in patent law. The smartphone war (Apple v. Samsung) was raging and humdrum companies like AOL would go on to sell a patent portfolio for $1 billion. The day I interviewed, Google bought Motorola Mobility and the consensus was that the deal was in key part for the patent portfolio.
So this seemed like an incredible opportunity to get on the ground floor with a market that was exploding. And on top of it, they had just hired a clerk full-time as an associate, so there was a path of advancement.
But I saw risks. The market was in the dumps, and companies were selling assets at a time when they had little operational revenue. But when the markets recovered and the revenue started flowing again, how much attention would they be directing to squeezing money out of these assets instead of focusing on their core business?
And if that happened, these partners would be able to fall back on the traditional patent litigation and prosecution skills to pivot elsewhere. Meanwhile, the bulk of the work I would have done there would have been specific to the patent brokerage market and have little application elsewhere.
Walking away and the aftermath
So I made a difficult call to walk away from the role and obtain a patent prosecution role. I was grateful for the experience and learned a ton. And it was an early lesson in the importance of focusing on durable skills and following my own judgement.
I think my decision to leave the firm has been validated. That type of work did indeed fall off as the economy improved. And a Supreme Court decision led to invalidating many of the types of patents the firm worked with. A number of the key lawyers of the firm have since left.
Focusing on durable skills will never lead you astray. For me, growing my legal network is an evergreen asset. I don't think there's a more versatile asset - if you're sharing stories or selling services, your legal network is waiting. And it's an asset that never decreases in value, as long as you maintain it.
I’m also grateful that I practiced following my own judgement then. If I hadn’t start then and practiced takings risks, I would never learned how to develop confidence in my own decisions. The stakes will never be smaller than they are today.
Focusing on durable skills led me to my next role at a firm with real job prospects that paid handsomely. But I was tested with an offer that could have greater potential rewards. It's a story I've never told. See you next week.