Question:
I invite everybody to give their feedback on their impression of the patent
agent/attorney job outlook. Has anybody found a new job lately?
Answer:
-I just started a temporary patent litigation assignment at a first-tier DC firm
through an agency, and the only other patent attorney on that assignment is an
ex-PTO examiner in the mechanical arts who says that the firms are telling him
they're not hiring. Purely anecdotal, but I suspect he's done a pretty good
job search in DC.
-Not all firms are not hiring. My firm hired two of its law clerks that
graduated from law school this year and an experienced associate that left a
corporate position. And a few months ago we hired another experienced
associate from another law firm. Of the four, three have electrical
backgrounds and one a chemical background.
The problem is not that firms are not hiring, but rather there are more
people looking than positions and firms that overhired during the dot-com
boom are letting go associates with experience making it difficult for
inexperienced attorneys to get positions.
