Technical Specialists
A Supported IP Career Trajectory
Our technical specialists join Finnegan from graduate school or after gaining relevant industry experience, at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), or other postgraduate careers. You will take your place among a team that includes nearly 300 professionals with scientific degrees, and 65+ professionals with Ph.D.’s. If you have an outstanding technical background in a hard science, engineering, or computer science, and are interested in becoming a practicing IP attorney, know that Finnegan offers a highly-structured transitional career pathway.
Our Client-Service Approach
Technical expertise is a core component of what Finnegan offers clients and is highly valued within Finnegan’s collegial culture and flat hierarchic structure. Yes, we are a firm with a powerful track record of defending and advocating for our clients and their innovations, but for us, IP law is more than a zero-sum game of winners and losers. Innovation and rulings have multi-dimensional implications, and clients regularly turn to us for guidance as they navigate new or shifting IP terrain. As you develop your own technical expertise, you’ll be right at the center of the IP conversation.
20+ industries
20+ industries
Representing the most innovative companies across the globe, spanning industries including pharmaceutical, electrical, and others.
Why Finnegan?
Finnegan is about people. As a Technical Specialist, you will collaborate with attorneys, peer experts, and professional support staff from around the world. Our professionals are multilingual and multicultural and hail from locations ranging from Romania to Pennsylvania to Colombia to Taiwan. There’s a reason Vault ranked us as a top law firm for diversity in its 2023 rankings. The culture here prizes relationships, teamwork, and respect, regardless of title or function. Find out why many Finnegan professionals spend their entire career here.
We practice every major area of IP.
As you lay the foundation for your career, know that Finnegan attorneys serve clients through 10 major IP practice areas and many additional sub-practices. We also follow innovation, with specialist teams focused on more than 20 industries that currently generate the bulk of global IP activity.
Where You Can Work
Technical Specialists work in our Washington, DC headquarters, or in one of our other ten offices situated near innovation hubs in Atlanta, Boston, Palo Alto, Reston, London, Munich, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, or Tokyo.
"There’s tons of expertise here, and that just makes my work better, because I get to rely on other people who have tremendous experience."
— Finnegan technical specialist
Professional Development
At Finnegan, you will discover that continuous training and professional development are a vital part of your career and our culture. You will receive all the resources and training you need to assist you in becoming an exceptional attorney providing superior service to our clients. In addition to in-house roundtable programs, ad hoc meetings about updates to changes in IP law, and monthly practice group and section meetings, Finnegan offers formal training programs:
Finnegan’s LEAP Program
Finnegan believes that training and ongoing education are essential to developing the best attorneys and advocates for our clients. With multiple training and education components, our comprehensive in-house training program - LEAP (Learn Enrich Achieve Progress) is designed to enhance the firm’s existing training and mentoring activities that occur throughout the year. This highly-ranked program arms our team with the tools and resources necessary to practice law in an ever-evolving legal and business market.
The LEAP calendar includes the following programs: Litigation training, advanced legal writing, advanced patent prosecution, PTAB practice, advanced technical and legal research, business development training and individualized coaching, billing and timekeeping, budget development, accounting for lawyers, persuasive speaking, law firm economics, presentation skills, leadership, management, and delegation.
Patent Prosecution Training
For those new to patent prosecution, Finnegan offers a prosecution bootcamp to introduce our newest professionals to the practice of patent prosecution. The bootcamp is supplemented by bi-monthly prosecution roundtables, in which Finnegan experts discuss developments in the law and how it impacts our day-to-day prosecution practice.
Legal Writing
Persuasive, precise, and compelling writing is something we strive for at Finnegan. Our writer-in-residence hones the legal writing skills of our attorneys through classroom teaching and one-on-one writing consultations. Sample classroom topics include brief writing, writing as an advocate, advanced legal writing, and writing as a non-native English speaker.
Litigation Training
Every other year, our top litigators teach an in-house litigation skills series, taking a litigation matter from its inception (how to develop case strategy with your client) to its conclusion (how to write and argue appellate briefs). These classroom programs are supplemented with experiential learning workshops, where you’ll learn about effective deposition strategies, how to interact with experts, and how to conduct cross- and direct-examination of witnesses. The capstone litigation experience occurs when you’re a senior associate - you’ll have the opportunity to participate in the University of Virginia Trial College, where you’ll participate in a mock trial from start to finish and learn from the best trial attorneys in the country.
Benefits
At Finnegan, you’ll find that the health and well-being of all our professionals and their families are of the utmost importance. We offer a comprehensive, well-rounded benefits package to meet your health, financial, and educational needs and interests.
Health and welfare benefits
- Affordable health, dental and vision insurance plans, including convenient telehealth services
- Firm-paid life insurance
- Firm-paid accidental death and dismemberment insurance
- Firm-paid long-term disability insurance
- Group supplemental life, accidental death and dismemberment, long-term care insurance, and income protection plans available
- Domestic partner benefits
- Flexible spending accounts for dependent care, healthcare, and parking expenses
- Health advocacy program
- Wellness program
- Free resource and care support program for employees with children with developmental disabilities
- Pet insurance
Leave benefits and flexible work schedules
- Paid jury duty
- Paid bereavement leave
- Personal and educational leaves of absence
- Paid medical leave (short-term disability)
- Paid family and parental leave
- Reduced and part-time work schedule options
Retirement benefits
- Pre-tax 401(k) and Roth
- Pre-retirement planning assistance
Childcare and eldercare
- Back-up/Emergency childcare, center-based or in-home
- In-home sick childcare
- In-home backup elder/adult care
- Preferred access spaces for full-time childcare (DC office)
Additional benefits
- Pre-tax transportation expenses
- Employee assistance program
- Overtime meal and taxicab rides
- Direct deposit
FAQs
What are the hiring criteria for technical specialists?
You must have a hard science, engineering, or computer science degree and demonstrated expertise in your field.
If desired, Technical Specialists who have been with the firm for at least two years (including taking and passing the Patent Bar exam) are eligible to apply for the firm’s program that allows them to attend a part‑time evening law school program while continuing to work at the firm. The firm may approve enrollment in a full-time law school program (Harvard and Stanford) in limited instances. If accepted, the firm covers the cost of tuition and textbooks, and the technical specialist receives a reduced billable‑hour requirement.
Will I be assigned to a specific department?
You are placed into a practice group based on your scientific or technical background. Each practice group has a practice group leader who monitors the workloads and professional development of the practice group members.
What type of work will I get?
Typically, a technical specialist focuses on patent prosecution. However, your scientific skills may be better suited to a litigation-based workload. Work is assigned based on skill sets, professional development goals, and client needs.
What is the billing requirement?
Finnegan offers two annual billable requirement options to our technical specialists: 1800 billable hours or 2000 billable hours.
Does the firm give credit for pro bono work?
Yes, credit toward your billable goal is awarded for pro bono contributions. Pro bono work is an important part of Finnegan’s commitment to social responsibility. We believe that giving back is also an opportunity to receive knowledge, expertise, experience, and the good feeling one gets from helping others. Technical specialists are credited 100 hours a year toward their billable hour goal for work on pro bono matters.
Is there a mentoring program?
When you join the firm, you are assigned both a partner advisor and a peer advisor. Your partner advisor assists with the formal performance reviews given twice a year and counsels you in regard to your professional development. Your peer advisor, who is usually a former technical specialist, will introduce you to others in the firm, answer your questions, and help smooth your transition into the firm.
What is the firm's dress code?
Our day-to-day dress is business casual in all of our offices. Occasionally, you may be required to wear a business suit or comparable formal professional attire.
What is the firm's diversity and inclusion policy?
Finnegan is one of the leading companies in any field when it comes to the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce. When you meet with us, you will quickly realize that Finnegan values diversity. For more information about our diversity and inclusion efforts, please click here.