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[thwalls]

Hey, I've posted on here a couple of times and I can't thank this community enough.  Next month I'll be starting my technical advisor/patent agent position at a boutique law firm in Philadelphia.  Also, three weeks after I start the position I'll be attending law school in the evenings.  The nice part about the firm is that they've told me that my hours will be reduced from 1600 to 1350 while I'm in school which seems very generous.  Although I've passed the patent bar, I accept the fact that I'm still very 'green' I don't know jack in terms of patent filing and writing and there will be a significant learning curve. 

From your experience what will be the first things that I will be made to do? Will it just be observing, will I be required to perform only prior art research for a few months, or will it be a case of me writing up the patent and then submitting the draft for editing by a senior agent/attorney?

I know that I'll be able to do the work but I'm still very clueless about what they'll be expecting me to do from the get-go.

[klaviernista]

From your experience what will be the first things that I will be made to do? Will it just be observing, will I be required to perform only prior art research for a few months, or will it be a case of me writing up the patent and then submitting the draft for editing by a senior agent/attorney?

Will depend on the firm and their needs.  At my old firms, tech specs were used for everything from patent prosecution to due diligence.  What you start on may very well depend on what the firm has in the qeue at the moment.

I doubt you will be asked to perform "only" prior art research for the first few months.  Sure, it is worth knowing how to run a patentability search, but the meat and potatoes of the job lies in actual prosecution (which I would distinguish from patent searching), actual litigation, and/or actual client counseling.  And since you were hired, I imagine that your firm will want to bring you up to speed as quickly as humanly possible, so that you can start cranking out billables and become an increasingly productive firm assett.

And don't worry, I am sure that whoever you work for will understand that you are completely new to patents.  We all were at some point.  Some of my old coworkers seemingly forgot that was the case, but that doesn't make it any less true.

[Robert K S]

my hours will be reduced from 1600 to 1350 while I'm in school which seems very generous

Generous--perhaps.  Against the rules--that too, possibly.  The ABA limits student employment to 20 hours per week while enrolled in more than 12 class hours (Standard 304(f)).

Presuming 1350 is an annual number, that still works out to about 26 hours/week.  Hopefully it's meant to mean that the extra hours are to be made up in the summer, and that your number of hours won't be raised back to 1600 during the breaks?

Or, possibly, night school is 12 hours or less, or you're not attending an ABA-accredited school...

[MLM]

my hours will be reduced from 1600 to 1350 while I'm in school which seems very generous

Generous--perhaps.  Against the rules--that too, possibly.  The ABA limits student employment to 20 hours per week while enrolled in more than 12 class hours (Standard 304(f)).

I thought this was aspirational. "May not" vs. "shall not." Anyway, its up to the school to enforce this. Mostly I think the school gets in trouble with the ABA if too many students are working more than 20 hours per week. I'm not sure the school will punish the student. Working during school is punishment enough.

[thwalls]

So if you work 40 hours a week it's "against the rules" to attend law school part-time?  I thought that rule only applied to full time students.

EDIT: (f) A student may not be employed more than 20 hours per week in any week in which the student is enrolled in more than twelve class hours.

Temple law requires that a part-time student maintain 11 credit hours or less per semester.  hehehe, living right on the edge there.

[klaviernista]

So if you work 40 hours a week it's "against the rules" to attend law school part-time?  I thought that rule only applied to full time students.

As you already noticed, this applies to full time students only. 

Not that it matters.  Working and going to law school is not easy, part time or not. OP, I wish you the best of luck.  As my father (who is Czech) would say: "Keep your eyes on the prize, you zasrany hajzl!"

[NoCode416]

Within 10 minutes at my Summer internship at a patent boutique last year I was asked if I knew how to write an amendment.  I said, "Do you have any examples I can take a look at real quick?"