In lieu of a real-life Christmas present, I thought I would share with you my go-to happy thoughts about the practice of IP. If you’ve had a long year of billable hour pressures, admin, and office politics, maybe some of these thoughts will resonate enough to reignite a spark. YOU GET TO LEARN NEW THINGS Each new file is a whole new world to dive into and discover. Even the most humdrum...
As a junior lawyer I sat in on many speakerphone calls between law firm partners and their clients. During one such call I was shocked when the partner rubbed his temples and muttered, audibly enough for the client to hear, “Just get to the f***ing point”. At the time I hadn’t given much thought about what it meant to listen well, but I knew that wasn’t it. The more I have...
If I ever had the misfortune to be an after-dinner speaker for a group of lawyers (or patent attorneys for that matter), I would begin by plagiarising this statement: “Lawyers are a tough crowd. There might be more intimidating professionals – snipers, bar bouncers – but they didn’t want to hear from me.”(J Shapiro, Lawyers, Liars and the Art of Storytelling) Lawyers...
