Introduction: Pierce Law Alums
The Greatest Advantage

IP alumni

THOUSANDS OF HAPPY PIERCE LAW IP ALUMS AROUND THE WORLD

How it is that a small, independent, stand alone law school in New Hampshire can compete with institutions with major resources such as the other top IP ranked law schools like: University of California—Berkeley, Stanford, George Washington. Columbia, Duke and others? One part of the answer is the Pierce Law alums.

Thirty-five years ago Robert Rines, a patent attorney and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had a dream of the MIT School of Law where the focus would be on the interface of law and science as well as training patent lawyers with a practice based approach. What was intended as the “MIT North Campus” in New Hampshire was not to be, as a change of administration at MIT resulted in a decision not to pursue building a law school. Pierce Law has graduated thousands of IP professionals who are demonstrably successful using various sources of data as well as stories and testimonials.

Overview

While many students considering attending law school to study IP have the burning desire to know, "what can you tell me about what I might be able to earn as a new IP graduate from Pierce Law" , that question grossly oversimplifies the range of career opportunities that our global alum have available. The information in these pages attempts to balance the statistics on Pierce law IP graduates at top IP firms with information regarding the reality that our IP alums end up working in many settings:

law firms
corporate legal departments
corporate management
government agencies
non-governmental organizations
companies providing financial products and services related to Intellectual Property expert testimony, valuation, investments, risk management and transactions
companies that provide patent search technology, portfolio management software, online patent analytics, and an international patent databases
consultancies
academia
legal publishing
start up businesses

Rankings Mania

Rankings are used heavily by many to evaluate IP lawyers. The IP Alumni area of this site provides rankings by the prestigious Chambers organization, Intellectual Property Today, Managing Intellectual Property and others.

Beyond rankings are the many success stories that are not reflected in rankings. There are thousands of IP alums around the world who are financially and personally successful. Success is not only measured by money, but also by quality of life and service to individuals and society. Pierce presents some of these stories and will continue to present stories published in Pierce Law Magazine and other publications.

The Chambers USA IP Rankings : Pierce on Top

Chambers Ranks Pierce Law IP Alums at Highest Levels

The guiding principle behind Chambers USA IP Rankings is to meet the needs and expectations of clients. What Chambers does is dictated by what clients tell them would be most useful to them. This is why - in the sixth edition - they have deepened and refined thier coverage of every industry sector and every state.

Law firms and individual attorneys are ranked in bands from 1-6, with 1 being the best. The qualities on which rankings are assessed include technical legal ability, professional conduct, client service, commercial astuteness, diligence, commitment, and other qualities most valued by the client.

Chambers selects sources on the basis of:

submissions put forward by legal practices
interviews during the course of research
our own database resources.
In-depth interviews with clients and with attorneys are done over the telephone, each one lasting about half an hour.