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[John John]

I just finished my first year in law school and for the last couple of months I have been spending my summer preparing for the USPTO patent exam (if they ever decide when they are going to allow me to take it!)

Anyway, about a week ago I got a summer clerckship offer.  However, I am hesitant to accept it for the following reason...

The offer came from a good friend of mine's wife (call her Joan).  Joan worked for a prestigious IP house for about 9 years, recently made partner, and decided to leave to start her own firm (a couple of months ago) after she convince two of her largest clients that their IP needs would be better served with her than her old firm.

Now, I would love to help Joan start her new firm, and the patent prosecution experience would be great, but is me working for her going to hurt my chances of landing a job with the old firm?....

Is what Joan did a common occurrence in law firms? If I work for Joan's new firm will it burn any bridges with her old firm, especially since I may want to work for them in the future?

Any ideas, advice, or suggestions would be gladly appreciated...Thanks!

[JimIvey]

Now, I would love to help Joan start her new firm, and the patent prosecution experience would be great, but is me working for her going to hurt my chances of landing a job with the old firm?....

It depends.  Does Joan remain friendly with her old firm?  I've left two firms, neither of which currently exists.  The first one I left, they told me I had burned no bridges and would be welcome back.  I never tested that, but it was nice to hear.  The second one was run by a rather quirky individual.  During my last week there, he changed the locks and had me escorted into and out of the firm each day.  I'm not even sure that someone working for me would have burned bridges with that firm, but you should expect to be dragged through the wringer to rid you of all my "bad habits."  My point is this, your answer depends entirely on the personalities involved.

One more point:  When I started the second summer internship, 6 of the 8 people I had interviewed with the previous autumn were no longer at the firm.  Does that firm have high turnover?  If so, there might not be many attorneys who knew Joan still there when you interview next fall.

Is what Joan did a common occurrence in law firms? If I work for Joan's new firm will it burn any bridges with her old firm, especially since I may want to work for them in the future?

Yes, it's quite common.  There seems to be a current trend of big firms merging into even bigger firms and many attorneys just don't want to work in the mega-firms.  So many attorneys drop out of the mega-firms to go solo or to start small firms.  And those firms merge into big firms and the big firms merge into mega-firms and more attorneys drop out and the process continues.  Think of water boiling into steam and recondensing and dropping back into water.  What I can't say is whether there's any equilibrium reached.  However, the legal profession seems to be quite liquid in terms of individual attorney mobility.

Regards.