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[Orgo]

I am currently a graduate student in an Organic chemistry PhD program and I am interested in doing Patent law (prosecution most likely).  I am facing the choice of whether I should leave with my masters (MA not MS) or finish my PhD (extra 3 years) and then go to law school.  I know this question has been asked before on the forums and it seems that the response generally varies by your field of expertise.  I would love get some insight from anyone in the know about what patent law looks like for someone with an organic chemistry background.

  I have looked around on large firm websites and looked through the attorneys with organic backgrounds and I see lots with PhD's and lots with Masters degrees.  I am interested in working at a large or medium sized firm, and maybe in-house at a pharma company.  I hope to get into a T14 school and work in a large city (most likely chicago).

If it is important to anyone, I am working in a lab specializing in natural product synthesis with a well known professor.  My undergraduate degree was Biochemistry with a bio minor.  

Thanks for any help!

[vivienleigh]

I would stay and finish the Ph.D..  I'm coming from a biology background, but I think bio and chem are similar in terms of the various career prospects available and what degrees are required for them.  I think the extra three years will be worth it because you'll have more career options available to you with a Ph.D. than a Master's, and you'll be able to compete better against other J.D.s with technical backgrounds.  If you were someone who was just considering applying to graduate school, I'm not sure I'd advise you to go for the Ph.D., but since you've already gotten in, I think you're better off finishing what you started.  And if you really think you want to go into patent prosecution, I think it's even more important for you to have the Ph.D.    

[last_man_standing]

Don't listen to the last poster. You have ten times the career potential with a chemistry MS than a PhD in TODAY'S market. Thanks to our friends at the American Chemical Society there are now five PhD chemists for ever job. While there are some jobs for B.S, M.S levels, as a PhD you are in competition with the global market.  While you can get some traction in the earlier part of your career, there are virtually NO jobs for people with more than five years worth of experience. H1B, L-1  visas in concert with a contracting job market have decimated the career potential for anyone outside of academics.  It works well for Academia because they have a never-ending supply of post-docs and of course industry loves disposable employees.

There is a 'cut to the bone' atmosphere in chemistry today. Nobody wants to pay for your title or believes they need to pay for it.

So ask yourself -do you want to eat or do you want a title?
:-/

[vivienleigh]

I think we may be defining career potential differently.  I do believe there are more positions open to those with Bachelor's and Master's degrees, since there are more technician spots than management jobs, but with those you hit a ceiling pretty quickly.  I tried doing research with a B.S. in biology and realized that I could stick with my job for five years and stay in the same position, or invest that time in school getting a Ph.D. and come out in a higher position with much more room to advance.  Also, the poster was interested in the merits of a Ph.D. vs. a M.A. for a patent prosecution attorney, and I don't believe that the Ph.D./J.D. field is yet so saturated that you'd be better off with just a M.A.  It'd be worth it to me to just stick out the remaining three years even if they end up not meaning that much than to leave early and risk regretting later that if I didn't go to the end once it's too late to go back.

[LPM]

I am wondering where you posters are getting your information from about the job market. Is it from the academic faculty? (They have proven to be a very poor source of information as I see it.) Or is it based on ACTUAL EXPERIENCE in the job market?  (directed to lastmanstanding)

[last_man_standing]

All real world up to date info from numerous associates.
Uhhh pick up a copy of C&E news and look at the employment
section.

You should be trying to form a Union. You see, tenured faculty are a union and they're flooding the market with armies of 3rd world scientists.  There is no reason why a single American need ever get a PhD again. Industry loves the whole indentured slave approach anyway.

[mikeee]

I'm not sure what the other posters are talking about.  You asked about being an attorney with an MA vs. a Ph.D.  

I am an attorney with a B.S. in chemistry and I have a very nice job as in house IP Counsel for an international chemcial company.  In addition to partent prosecution, I work on confidentiality agreements, trademark prosecution, IP issues related to M&A and other IP couseling.  So while the hardcore patent prosecution specialist who only sits around and writes applications may be better off with a Ph.D. I would suggest that you get into you field (IP Law) as quickly as possible to start developing your attorney experiece.  

One danger being you might not like being a patent attorney or an attorney period and then your limited by your MA.  

So you might consider working as a counsultant to a patent firm while you finish your Ph.D. (if this is possible with the work load).  This would provide you patent experience with a firm, expose you to what a patent attorney does with patent prosecution and allow you to finish your Ph.D.  

If you could find some time you could also get through the patent bar now and work part time as a patent agent.

[vivienleigh]

I've been looking at job postings for in-house positions for pharmaceutical companies, and most say "advanced degree preferred."  I know a lot of chemistry PhDs heading to law school, so I'm guessing down the road, the advanced degree will become a requirement rather than just a preference because there'll be enough JD/PhDs available.  I could be wrong, but if it were my career, I wouldn't take the chance.  If the original poster hadn't yet applied to grad school, I wouldn't advise getting the PhD just to be more competitive as an attorney, but I'm all for finishing what you start.