mcmath said:
I've interned at a patent firm and I found the work mentally challenging and very demanding. The partner I worked under stayed in office 10-11 hrs, six days a week, barely taking a lunch break. Is this typically to be expected in the IP career path, and does it get easier? One would expect senior associates to work less as they move into managerial positions... any ideas if litigation or examiner positions are less demanding? Alternatively, I wonder if senior patent prosecutors eventually set their own small practice, much like you see with dentistry?
(I) I will address only patent prosecution, since I have direct experience with that. [I have a good notion of workloads of litigators and examiners, but it's second-hand.] Here’s how to get a first-order approximation of your workload. Assume 4 weeks off for personal time (e.g., vacations, holidays, personal days, and sick days); so you work 48 wks/yr. On a daily basis, you need to account for your hours, which fall roughly into the following buckets (simplified for ease of discussion):
(a) Client-related, billable hrs. E.g., time spent on new applications and responses to office actions. This time, in principle, is capable of being billed to a client. Because of price caps or flat-rate charges, however, the actual amount billed to a client may be less. The actual billed time is literally your bread-and-butter. [Caveat: Some firms use “billable” and “billed” in the opposite sense to that used here.]
(b) Client-related, non-billable hrs. E.g., time spent in initial discussions with potential new clients and travel time to-and-from existing clients are, in general, non-billable for prosecution.
(c) Firm-related, essential. This refers, e.g., to filling out time sheets, billing reconciliation, reading and responding to e-mail, organizing and reviewing your docket, organizing your files, mandatory docket reviews with your managing partner or senior associate, mandatory firm meetings, and mandatory continuing education.
(d) Firm-related, non-essential. This refers, e.g., to serving on diversity committees and quality-of-life committees, on-campus recruitment and job fairs, writing papers, giving presentations,
pro-bono work, courting new clients, and schmoozing with existing clients.
(e) Personal. This refers, e.g., to lunch, coffee, and bathroom breaks ... and time spent schmoozing with colleagues.
Firms have various compensation schemes. A common one is a set salary for a minimum number of billable or billed hours plus a bonus for hours in excess of the required minimum (up to a max cap).
A moderate minimum requirement, e.g., is 1800 billable hrs/yr. Averaged out over 48 wks, that’s 37.5 billable hrs/wk (7.5 billable hrs/day, assuming a 5-day work wk). Now, again assuming a 5-day work week, tack on ~1 – 2 hrs/day for non-billable client and essential firm-related time and ~1 – 1.5 hrs/day for personal time. So you come up with a total base time at the office of ~9.5 – 11 hrs/day for a 5-day work wk.
A heavier minimum requirement is 2000 billable hrs/yr; with some firms even higher. And remember, these are minimum requirements. If you’re an ambitious associate bucking for partner, you need to consistently and substantially exceed your minimums ... and take on non-essential firm-related work.
(II) I haven’t a clue what you mean by “One would expect senior associates to work less as they move into managerial positions ...” In some firms, some senior associates will manage the work of junior associates. Insofar as the time falls under the bucket of “client-related, billable”, it is credited towards their billable-hours total. Insofar as the time is spent answering general questions, that time is not credited. The distribution of work activities may change for a senior associate, but they don’t work fewer hours. Similarly, if you become a partner, the compensation scheme changes, and the distribution of work activities changes, but you don’t work fewer hours.
(III) Some experienced prosecutors do open their own firms. The hours are more flexible, obviously, but the workload is as heavy, or, more likely, even heavier, since they have more responsibilities.
(IV) If you want to trade off $$ for more personal time, look at smaller firms. They are usually more flexible in negotiating hours. And since there is typically no partnership track, there’s no pressure to load on extra duties to prove you’re partner material. But if you're expecting a 9 - 5 job, inclusive of lunch and breaks, 5 days/wk, patent prosecution is not the job for you.
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