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[Frustrated]

Hi All,

I am a registered Canadian and US agent (the US agency is based on reciprocity; I did not write the US exam) and a lawyer with a Ph.D. I've practised for a little while in Canada, but I would like to try to get a job in the US (I lived in the US before and preferred it over Canada for one thing and also, Canadian patent lawyers mainly do associate prosecution from law firms in the US anyway - in other words, often just send in a response prepared by a US attorney, but with modifications for Canadian law and to justify our existence to some extent).

I suppose it will not be easy to get a job in the US because of the economy and because of the hastle of my needing a Visa to work there, but has anyone done this? Would it help if I write a state bar exam?

[vman11]

Hmm, I was thinking about moving to Canada, cos things are so messed up here (but I was looking at more off engineering management / product development roles).

Guess the grass is always greener ...

Although volume wise I think Canada cannot really compete in terms of patent filings.

What I'd have to say though is hold up ... don't sell your house and get on a bus just yet. It's pretty bad. I've been in communication with a few firms and they're turning away partner level people.

[MYK]

Would you even be able to take a state bar exam?  I may be totally mistaken on this, but I thought all of them required at least an LL.M. from a U.S. law school, and some insist on a JD.  Maybe the state bars drop that requirement if someone has experience, though;  AFAIK all of the LL.M. students at my school are fresh LL.B. grads in their home countries.

[decom]

Hmm...some foreign attorneys I know came to the US and just took the bar exam (Calif).  I am sure they did not go to any LLM programs at a US law school.