Interview with Soniya Shah – Carnegie Mellon University Alum

Finnegan associate Soniya Shah didn’t always know that she was going to become a patent attorney. Instead, she thought she would pursue a career in medicine. That is, until she realized she wasn’t passionate about biochemistry like her peers at her alma mater Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Reflecting on her time in undergrad, Soniya spoke with CMU’s pre-law program about her path to becoming an attorney.

Soniya studied technical writing as an interdisciplinary major while also taking pre-med science course. Initially aiming for medical school, Soniya ultimately realized her passion was not in medical sciences. She said, “There were always going to be people that were probably more passionate than I was, and I think I just realized that I was really going to struggle with that.” With guidance from friends and mentors, she embraced her passion and studied something she really liked – English courses. “At a school where there are so many engineers and people are so great at math and science component of things, all my friends were like, ‘You are such a good and strong writer, and you’re kind of in the minority a little bit at this school in that way. Why don't you just focus on that … like that is a skill set that is actually needed.’”

Her junior year, Soniya was a technical writer intern at Vertica, a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard. She was hired full-time after graduating from CMU. She said she enjoyed the position because it allowed her to work at a job that actually reflected what she studied in the classroom. Some of her tasks included taking complex and highly technical information from engineers and data analysts and making it understandable for different audiences, ranging from newly hired engineers to users they sold the data analysis tools to.

She said her work at Vertica inspired her to pursue patent law, as she worked with a lot of patent attorneys. Using her connections at Vertica, she landed at American University Washington College of Law. On choosing Washington, DC  for law school, she said, “I’m probably biased, but DC  is probably one of the best places in the country to practice patent law because the Patent Office is in Alexandria, and many of the cases go to the Federal Circuit which is located in DC  And so, there's so much access to things right within the community that I live and practice in.”

As a patent attorney, Soniya said, “Even now, the skills and the things I learned studying technical writing, I implement in my day-to-day life. And when my colleagues learn that I have a degree in writing, they get excited because normally, we work with engineers. And so, we kind of have to, like, teach them how to write."

In addition to her work in patent prosecution, she also does a significant amount of pro bono work. Soniya said it’s an integral part of her work because her law school training gave her a set of skills that most people don’t have access to, and she wants to do as much as she can to make her services accessible to those who need it.  She also emphasizes the importance of relying on your team in pro bono work, particularly as the nature of some of the cases can be emotional.

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