Finnegan's Lawyer-Retention Formula: Erika Arner Talks Patent Law and Priorities

The National Law Journal interviewed Finnegan managing partner Erika Arner to discuss her career as an intellectual property attorney and projects and initiatives she would like to implement in her role as managing partner.

Erika shared how she started at Finnegan twenty-four years ago as a summer associate and believes the reason for the large number of partners staying and growing with Finnegan is due to the structure of the organization: "We are structured so that our attorneys are able to do any type of work within the world of IP. So unlike some firms where you would be put into the litigation section or the prosecution section or a certain practice area in IP, we are organized only by our technical backgrounds."

She explained that her experience at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) will align her well for success as managing partner:

"The PTAB Bar was such a great experience because we started with about a dozen firms and then expanded to about 40, where PTAB practitioners came together to form this bar association for the good of the PTAB itself. We were essentially competitors at some level for the same work. And yet we all appreciated this common goal, and that what would be good for the PTAB would be good for the patent ecosystem and innovation.

One of the first things I did as president was, seeing the dearth of women in the room—which I feel every day in practice and in patent law in general—was to form the association’s women’s committee. And that committee did some terrific work in measuring the participation of women at the PTAB. The PTAB itself has pointed to those reports as being instrumental in the creation of its LEAP training program targeting argument opportunities for junior attorneys, particularly women and diverse attorneys.

So it wasn’t just about networking and being with our friends, but really causing some good in the community and helping to create change over time in the practice at the PTAB and hopefully longer-term to increase the diversity of the practitioner pool."

Erika also shared project ideas for increasing diversity and inclusion at the firm:

"We have a really exciting project that we call Finnegan IP University. It’s a five-week, free training course targeted at undergraduate and graduate students in STEM areas to educate them about careers and opportunities in intellectual property.

And some of the participants in the program that we ran earlier this year are now coming on to join the firm as technical specialists, which is sort of an entry-level position into the IP world. So that was particularly targeted at diverse undergrads and grad students, although it was open to a broader community.

Another initiative we’ve actually done for many years now is the corporate diversity program. We work with clients who also have set diversity and inclusion as one of their corporate goals to help them hire and find diverse candidates. They typically work with us for part of the time as a summer associate and then work in house at the company for part of the time.

And then another big initiative we have is Finnegan forward. That’s our women’s business initiative. We sponsor women’s summits for both our women attorneys and women clients, and other programming and training and collaboration opportunities."

In concluding, Erika explained how she plans to maintain the firm's culture despite a hybrid work environment:

"I think every firm, every company is trying to figure out what our business looks like in this new world. I don’t think anyone is expecting us to return to the 2019 way of doing business. And so just getting out of that box of thinking “we have to get back to that,” and seeing it as more of an opportunity like, this is a whole new world [is important].

We have people who stay their whole careers here, and it’s because we really are a family business. We grow up together. And so a big part of maintaining our culture coming out of the pandemic is making sure those connections are built even with all of the junior people who have joined during this time, where they are virtually on-boarded, have not spent much time in the office physically. We want to find ways to connect with that generation of Finnegan attorneys, so they know everyone and get integrated into our culture, albeit some of it’s happening virtually, in videoconferences or otherwise.

There have been some real silver linings. We are able to visit clients much more frequently. Now, a client’s on the West Coast. I can see them every week even though I am seated in D.C. So figuring out how we can leverage those opportunities to connect culturally with our clients is another piece of it. It’s not just looking at it as, “Oh, how many days can we get people back into the office?” but really, “How can we best use the opportunities that this crazy new world is presenting to us?"

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