Careers Services for IP students: the Pierce advantage
Fact: The Career Services team has decades of experience finding careers for IP students
Fact: Ninety percent (yes- 90%) of all on campus interviews are for IP students
Fact: Career Services has launched thousands of successful alums. numerous rankings of IP law firms prove it
The Career Services Team is dedicated to giving each IP student comprehensive and tailored services to build a rewarding career. If you want the full picture of the overall services and career data, surf the Career Services Web. The cumulative experience working with IP employers gives Pierce Law students a competitive advantage. The Team knows the full landscape of IP careers. They work with our alum around the globe to find that perfect position in the United States or abroad.
The Team works with other IP related offices to gather the best leads and data. They interact with the Faculty, Externship Department, the IP Librarian and many others to be the best IP career building team in the United States.
Value Added Services for IP Students
Individual Attention
Staff members are available to meet with IP students for individual counseling. A counseling session may be used to review resumes and cover letters, strategize about summer and full time jobs and brainstorm on developing contacts and building the student's network.
Workshops and Programs
The Career Services Office presents over thirty programs and workshops during the academic year. Topics include writing an effective cover letter and resume, meeting informally with practicing attorneys and learning how to fill out a bar application.
IP Recruiting and Consulting Services
One regular workshop presenter is Kate Patterson who has specialized in recruiting and consulting services exclusively for intellectual property attorneys since 1980. Her counsel is sought by firms and corporations world-wide wrestling with the key problem in IP law today: an overabundance of IP legal work and a shortage of experienced attorneys. Beyond basic staffing issues, she shares her considerable experience with venture capital firms and investors advising them on how best to meet their IP needs. She has structured IP functions in numerous startup companies, working with corporations from their inception to the Fortune 100.
As IP law has grown and evolved, Kate has counseled major international law firms expanding their IP capabilities and worked closely with patent and trademark firms on their changing HR and staffing needs. Although recruiting is a primary concern of her company, Kate is more than a “headhunter”. She strategizes with clients to develop creative solutions to their current and future concerns. Her firm has built practice groups from conception and, as they grow and mature, solves continuing concerns about compensation, hiring, benefit and workload analysis.
NEW 2008 EDITION
IP Attorney speaks about Life as an IP Associate
Another 2008 example of value added speakers for IP students is for students interested in learning what life is like as an associate at an IP Firm should hear John Crocetti. Attorney Crocetti graduated from Pierce Law in 2007. He is currently an associate at the Washington DC law firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P. He practices in the areas of Electrical Intellectual Property; Electronic Intellectual Property; Intellectual Property Arbitration; Intellectual Property Litigation; and Patent Litigation.
Opportunities for Legal Experience
Franklin Pierce Law Center teaches its students substantive law but it also goes a step further in offering numerous opportunities for students to gain practical skills. Many of our students take advantage of the clinical opportunities available as well as Pierce Law's externship program, which allows students to earn credit by working with lawyers in a variety of legal settings. Learn more about the externship program.
Posting a Job with Career Services
Career Services works with IP employers looking to hire a law clerk, summer associate or new associate. They offer three IP recruiting options:
On Campus Interviews
Students cannot bid for interviews, the employer selects whom they want to interview. The process is as follows:
- Employers contact us and request an interview date, and send us a completed registration form.
- We collect the application materials the employer requests from students and send them to the employer 7-10 days before the interview date.
- The employer selects the students they wish to interview and notifies us of their choices.
- A final interview schedule is faxed to the employer prior to the interview date.
During the fall of 2006, 30 employers conducted over 188 interviews, mostly IP.
Resume Collection
Career Services list the employers' job requirements and ask students to submit their application materials to Career Services by a certain date. After the deadline, the applications are mailed in one group to the employer.
Resume Direct
Career Services lists the employers' job requirements and ask students to submit their application materials to the employer by a certain date.
Reciprocity
As a member of the National Association of Law Placement, we are able to request reciprocity to other law schools which provides reasonable access to their career resources such as job postings.
Cradle to Grave Service
Because the process of finding meaningful work is often a life–time endeavor, our commitment to Franklin Pierce Law Center students does not end at graduation. We continue to work on an individual basis with any graduate who needs help with their job search.
A global career in intellectual property law
Richard Wilder's career includes turns as a law professor in Malaysia, a legal officer at WIPO and at the United States Patent and Trademark Office and, now, a general counsel for Microsoft.
