Calculated risks and listening to your own judgement: part II
My dilemma from the search for high-margin work
The second career decision I made in law school had higher stakes. In case you missed it, here's how the first career decision played out.
I worked at the firm the summer of my 2L year. I had a cubicle next to the secretaries and was given patent specifications to draft. I was ecstatic - this was a real firm with real clients. I made $30/hr, a princely sum.
You get paid well as a patent lawyer. That's because for clients in winner-take-all markets, getting patents to exclude rivals is essential. It's a skill in demand. And only a few people have the right training or interest to be a patent lawyer, so the talent is hard to come by. Your deadlines are determined by law, so you know deadlines well in advance. But it's often repetitive - you draft patents over and over again.
The work is very orderly. The lawyers came at 9 am and left at 5 pm. Most of the partners were older, many didn't even come into the office, and there were only a couple associates. So it was quiet too. The firm wasn't at the top of the market, but just below. So I could get paid biglaw money for what was largely a 9-5.
At this point, you might be saying to yourself "What is this guy complaining about? Highly paid work and plenty of it with great hours but it might be a little boring? When it's a crappy economy?".
There's something else I didn't add - there's a lot of pressure on patent prosecution rates. The thing about patent prosecution is that any one patent is difficult to value. And plenty of low-cost operators competing to do the work.
I was in search of high-margin work that I found exciting. High-margin work would ensure I was more valued by a firm. Patent litigation is high-margin work. Companies pay millions to litigate disputes, which can be bet-the-company cases. And the work was more stimulating, even if it was more work.
I was about to get my shot at patent litigation. Through the relentless advocacy of Michele Bridges, the director of the center for intellectual property at the law school, I got an opportunity to extern for Chief Judge of the Northern District of Illinois, James Holderman. The Chief was a trial judge, and he loved digging into patent cases. Judicial externs assist in researching case law and contributing to judicial opinions. Some of the best experiences you can get as a law student. I still use what I learned there.
An externship with Judge Holderman would be a game-changer for me. I had mediocre grades in law school. And little inroads with patent litigation firms, which chased after engineers and computer scientists but didn't have much use for someone with life sciences training. The Chief was very plugged into the patent bar.
There was just one problem: my law firm saw a conflict of interest in externing for the judge and joining the firm. They wanted me all in. I had the summer to sort it out.
This was a tough dilemma. I forgot how hard it was to sort out until I went through my old emails on the decision-making process. I didn't remember this, but Michele asked Don Dunner, a named partner of the elite patent boutique Finnegan for his opinion. His take was that the externship was hard to pass because of the opportunity to develop the skills and relationships that could change my career.
I ended up betting on myself. If I could extern with Judge Holderman, I'd have the confidence and substantive experience to be bolder in reaching out to lawyers. Which I did.
That externship was the inflection point in my legal career. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it changed everything for me. I can still remember what it felt like to stand in chambers to enter the courtroom, the Chief making observations and jokes about the docket. And then the clerk would announce “all rise for the honorable Judge Holderman” and I’d walk into chambers in electrified air.
I learned a ton from the Chief1. And working with him gave me that confidence I was hungering for.
I met with Judge Holderman's former clerks. Former externs. And I made sure every patent lawyer I reached out to knew that I externed for the Chief. It started opening doors. An inch at a time.
How those efforts led to my next opportunity - and the next risky move, is next week's story.
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That's how Ed Koch would accost New Yorkers on the street when he was mayor. This is my first issue of the newsletter, and I'd love to hear from you what's working, and what you'd like more of.
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I sat down with the Chief to share the story of his path to the bench and beyond. He dropped something stunning, something he had never shared before, about how patent law is personal. You can listen to the episode here.