The work of an IP litigator requires certain key skills. You do not necessarily need all of them from the start, but you do need to have the potential and the motivation to acquire and develop them. Prospective employers will look for evidence of these skills in your CV and personal statement.
1. Communication skills
An IP litigator’s work relies on good communication skills, both written and oral. You will need to be proficient with words in a range of contexts, using them to define and describe; to explain and advise; to instruct and to question; and above all, to persuade. You will have to communicate with scientists and engineers; business people; other lawyers; and tribunals such as courts and patent offices.
This variety is what makes the job so enjoyable, but it also demands the ability to tailor your communication style to suit a particular type of reader or listener. You are, in effect, an interpreter between three world’s technology, business and law and you need to speak the language of each. Of course, communication is a two-way process, so you must also be good at listening, at reading other people, and at learning from what you hear.
You are unlikely to start out with the communication skills required of a qualified IP litigator, but you should at least have a reasonable degree of skill before you apply for your first job, and an enthusiasm for communicating. Expect employers to test for this with written exercises and interview questions.
2. The ability to work alone
Particularly in private practice, a IP litigator works alone rather than as part of a team. You will therefore need to be able to manage your own workload, motivate yourself to complete tasks on time and be sufficiently self-critical to quality assess your output. Right from day one, you will have to conduct private research and study, whether for your day to day work or to get you through the qualifying exams.
If you are not keen on long periods alone, analyzing and writing documents; if you would rather not spend the rest of your life poring over textbooks, court decisions, legal documents, scientific papers and of course patents, then you should probably not become an IP litigator.
3. A technical bent
You will need to be comfortable with technical information, possibly over a wider range of technologies than you are used to. Even if you are a biochemist, for example, you might still have to get to grips with the chemistry behind a client’s new drug preparation process, or the mechanical or electrical aspects of their new drug delivery device. You will almost certainly need to understand basic engineering drawings, circuit diagrams and flow charts, and of course graphs, spreadsheets and other common data presentation formats.
To be good at the job, you should have an enquiring mind. You will not initially understand every invention you come across, but you must be able to ask the right questions and learn quickly, becoming just enough of an expert to provide the legal assistance your client needs. It will also help if your curiosity extends to the commercial aspects of your work, IP litigator should be as interested in the business context of a client’s technology as in the science behind it.
4. Analytical skills
IP litigator have to analyse large amounts of information and reach logical, well-reasoned conclusions. You will need to be clear-thinking and rigorous in your analyses, critical of data and evidence and comprehensive in your approach. Often you will need to get to grips with both the details of a situation and its ‘big picture’ implications. And you will need to process legal and commercial information as well as scientific.
5. An eye for detail
In this job, details matter; accuracy is essential. You really do have to care about getting exactly the right word, phrase or definition one that’s precise, apt, exhaustive, unambiguous and indisputable. Start with your CV. If you find details tedious, or if inaccuracies slip into your work despite your good intentions, then this is not the job for you.
6. Lateral thinking
IP litigator have to be almost as creative as the inventors they work with. Are there alternative ways of protecting this technology? What will competitors do to avoid our patent? Is there another way of interpreting this document? How can we get round this legal problem? Should I look at this situation from another angle?
7. Time management
You will have several pieces of work on the go at once, possibly for different clients and in different technical fields. Some will be urgent, some not; some large, some small; some complex and others relatively easy. New instructions or queries could arrive at any time. And all of this work will carry deadlines, whether legal deadlines or commercial ones driven by your clients’ business needs. As an IP litigator you will need to be organized. You will have to work quickly, but without loss of accuracy. You must learn to prioritized your caseload, to delegate where appropriate and to manage your time efficiently so that all of your tasks get due attention and within the right time-frame.
8. Stress management
How well do you cope under pressure? Can you maintain the quality of your output even as the work piles on, the deadlines loom, the difficult questions arise and the inevitable distractions threaten your plans? Can you recognize the signs of stress and take evasive action?
We tend to learn stress management techniques through bitter experience. But some people are inherently more susceptible to stress than others, and their work more likely to suffer as a result. If that applies to you, a career-long battle against stress could make you very unhappy.
9. And finally
Because IP litigator work alone and unsupported, because they are constantly faced with new technology and new legal scenarios, because they may have to stand before a tribunal again, alone and argue a client’s case, or convey important but possibly unwelcome legal advice to that client, because of all these things, you will need a good dose of self-confidence. But start with a little, and build it up gradually. With greater confidence in your abilities, there comes a greater need to recognize and admit your limitations, and humility will be a valuable trait throughout your career. An IP litigator is a service provider, after all: there will always be plenty to learn from both colleagues and clients.
