Transactional attorneys - what do you include in your bio?

[Susie]

We're having all the attorneys in our firm take a look at their bios on the firm's website, and mine is probably high on the list of people whose bio looks stale. I've been here for almost 9 years, and this was my first job out of law school. I'm having a hard time coming up with what to include/keep.

My practice is strictly IP, and transactional in nature. So unlike a litigator, I don't have representative cases I can list. I could list representative published patent applications/patents that I've written and/or prosecuted, but that doesn't tend to be a prevailing practice.

Most of the stuff on my bio is stuff that at this point is pretty old. I had a couple internships before I came here that are listed. I feel like referring to internships at this point makes me sound inexperienced, rather than the experience being a positive. I'm thinking the 2007 IP writing competition award that I won is also doing more harm than good at this point?

Once that stuff is gone though, I'm not left with much besides BS, JD, bar admissions, and a brief fluff description of my practice and the technical areas that I have experience in.

I've given a few presentations, but most of them aren't impressive-sounding, or were given to prospective clients that aren't really list-able. I talk at colleges from time to time, for example, sometimes formal presentations and sometimes just informal "come in and be a guest at X class" type stuff. I haven't published much, since there's not much incentive for that here.

What kinds of things do you include? Any suggestions for what I should include (or leave out)?

(PDQ, I may redact later.)

[v]

What do the junior partners at top large firms in your practice have in their bios? I would emulate those (not because they're better lawyers than you, but because larger firms have likely spent a lot of money on consultants to build effective websites).

But really, your bare bones description of what you'll have left sounds typical to me for someone of your level.

[Susie]

Among people who practice in my area, I've tended to see two types of bios. One type is the bios of patent practitioners who work in IP departments of large general practice firms, whose bios read more like a litigator's, and are dominated by "Representative Experience" styled as "Member of a team that achieved ___ in Smith v. Jones (citation)." I think that is more a function of shoehorning patent practitioners' info into How Those Firms Write Bios than anything else.

The other type is patent practitioners in smaller IP firms, and their bios tend to be meandering, wordy, and suffering from wall of text syndrome. Honestly I can barely stay awake through them to summarize how they're written. Usual points include where they worked in industry prior to law (which I don't have), what advanced degree they have and what their dissertation was on, publications, professional affiliations (who cares? but it's a staple), recognitions where applicable.

One guy has separate sections for "Prosecution experience" and "Enforcement experience," and the prosecution experience includes "Managing [FIrm] prosecution for [3 different Fortune 100 companies]" as one bullet point. Not a common approach, but interesting.

[nomad100]

I work in legal marketing and coordinate with my firm's attys on their bios regularly). To start, I would look at the bios of other attys just above your level and emulate theirs.

In our firm, our transactional attys (though none are patent folks), list some transactions in general terms (Represented a large auto manufacturer in X, represented an international medical device designer in the successful securing of Y, etc.) Not sure if that is something you can do.

In the narrative bios, we also include any professional or community activities or leadership roles - chair of the XX committee of young lawyers section, board member of XX organization type stuff - since involvement in the profession and community is a big part of my firm's culture.

[nomad100]

Nov 20, 2014 14:58:19 GMT -5 Susie said:

Among people who practice in my area, I've tended to see two types of bios. One type is the bios of patent practitioners who work in IP departments of large general practice firms, whose bios read more like a litigator's, and are dominated by "Representative Experience" styled as "Member of a team that achieved ___ in Smith v. Jones (citation)." I think that is more a function of shoehorning patent practitioners' info into How Those Firms Write Bios than anything else.

The other type is patent practitioners in smaller IP firms, and their bios tend to be meandering, wordy, and suffering from wall of text syndrome. Honestly I can barely stay awake through them to summarize how they're written. Usual points include where they worked in industry prior to law (which I don't have), what advanced degree they have and what their dissertation was on, publications, professional affiliations (who cares? but it's a staple), recognitions where applicable.

One guy has separate sections for "Prosecution experience" and "Enforcement experience," and the prosecution experience includes "Managing [FIrm] prosecution for [3 different Fortune 100 companies]" as one bullet point. Not a common approach, but interesting.

A number of the attys at the firm I work at have paragraphs summarizing their experience in the various areas of their practice, especially since stuff like Labor & Employment or Business/Corporate, tend to be pretty broad and this allows them to "talk" about their expertise.

[Susie]

Nov 20, 2014 15:02:49 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

In our firm, our transactional attys (though none are patent folks), list some transactions in general terms (Represented a large auto manufacturer in X, represented an international medical device designer in the successful securing of Y, etc.) Not sure if that is something you can do.

The difficulty with this kind of description is that each patent application, drafting through issuance, is kind of a drop in the bucket.  For our larger clients, we've done hundreds, sometimes hundreds for a single division (sometimes times multiple divisions).  It wouldn't be practical to identify a specific matter, e.g., by patent number.  I might be able to say I "prepare and prosecute patent applications for Widget Corp.," or I "prepare and prosecute patent applications in X technologies for Widget Corp".

Right now my bio says I "prepare and prosecute patent applications in X, Y, and Z technologies."  Without specifics though, it feels sort of unsubstantiated.

Another option, should I not want to/not be able to list client names, would be to list ballpark numbers.  Like, "drafted over X original patent applications," prosecuted hundreds, that sort of thing.

[lurknomore]

Nov 20, 2014 14:58:19 GMT -5 Susie said:

Among people who practice in my area, I've tended to see two types of bios. One type is the bios of patent practitioners who work in IP departments of large general practice firms, whose bios read more like a litigator's, and are dominated by "Representative Experience" styled as "Member of a team that achieved ___ in Smith v. Jones (citation)." I think that is more a function of shoehorning patent practitioners' info into How Those Firms Write Bios than anything else.

The other type is patent practitioners in smaller IP firms, and their bios tend to be meandering, wordy, and suffering from wall of text syndrome. Honestly I can barely stay awake through them to summarize how they're written. Usual points include where they worked in industry prior to law (which I don't have), what advanced degree they have and what their dissertation was on, publications, professional affiliations (who cares? but it's a staple), recognitions where applicable.

One guy has separate sections for "Prosecution experience" and "Enforcement experience," and the prosecution experience includes "Managing [FIrm] prosecution for [3 different Fortune 100 companies]" as one bullet point. Not a common approach, but interesting.

Our bios (medium IP boutique) fall into this category, sadly, so I can't be of much help.  We do have one, though, that lists that supposedly has the highest score ever (as of the year he took it) on our state's bar exam. 

[nomad100]

Nov 20, 2014 15:17:31 GMT -5 Susie said:

Nov 20, 2014 15:02:49 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

In our firm, our transactional attys (though none are patent folks), list some transactions in general terms (Represented a large auto manufacturer in X, represented an international medical device designer in the successful securing of Y, etc.) Not sure if that is something you can do.

The difficulty with this kind of description is that each patent application, drafting through issuance, is kind of a drop in the bucket.  For our larger clients, we've done hundreds, sometimes hundreds for a single division (sometimes times multiple divisions).  It wouldn't be practical to identify a specific matter, e.g., by patent number.  I might be able to say I "prepare and prosecute patent applications for Widget Corp.," or I "prepare and prosecute patent applications in X technologies for Widget Corp".

Right now my bio says I "prepare and prosecute patent applications in X, Y, and Z technologies."  Without specifics though, it feels sort of unsubstantiated.

Another option, should I not want to/not be able to list client names, would be to list ballpark numbers.  Like, "drafted over X original patent applications," prosecuted hundreds, that sort of thing.

I would go for the last option.  You want to be able to capture as much of your experience as possible.

A rather general and non-specific item you can include in a bio is something like
"Ms. Susie speaks and writes on a number of patent related topics including (put a few things down on the list)."  The fact that you haven't done a lot of it is irrelevant because you do speak and write on those topics.

So you have any professional association involvement (bar committees, professional organizations) or community groups you are involved in?  That stuff is usually good for a paragraph of content.

[Susie]

lol, lurknomore.  Goody for him!  Does he have his SAT and LSAT scores on his LinkedIn profile too?  

[kadams767]

Nov 20, 2014 15:17:31 GMT -5 Susie said:

Nov 20, 2014 15:02:49 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

In our firm, our transactional attys (though none are patent folks), list some transactions in general terms (Represented a large auto manufacturer in X, represented an international medical device designer in the successful securing of Y, etc.) Not sure if that is something you can do.

The difficulty with this kind of description is that each patent application, drafting through issuance, is kind of a drop in the bucket.  For our larger clients, we've done hundreds, sometimes hundreds for a single division (sometimes times multiple divisions).  It wouldn't be practical to identify a specific matter, e.g., by patent number.  I might be able to say I "prepare and prosecute patent applications for Widget Corp.," or I "prepare and prosecute patent applications in X technologies for Widget Corp".

Right now my bio says I "prepare and prosecute patent applications in X, Y, and Z technologies."  Without specifics though, it feels sort of unsubstantiated.

Another option, should I not want to/not be able to list client names, would be to list ballpark numbers.  Like, "drafted over X original patent applications," prosecuted hundreds, that sort of thing.

This is a rough summation of what I do.  I am able to list major clients, but I don't list specific projects.  So I have things like "closed transactions in excess of $____million while representing clients X, Y and Z as they pursue blah blah blah practice specific info blah blah blah."

[lurknomore]

Nov 20, 2014 15:30:47 GMT -5 Susie said:

lol, lurknomore.  Goody for him!  Does he have his SAT and LSAT scores on his LinkedIn profile too?  

Isn't that awesome!??!?! 

I looked at your bio.  It feels very standard for a smallish IP firm bio.  I looked at a bunch of ours too, as well as some of the other boutiques here and they all are similar.  I think it is hard to get into specifics here because name dropping clients isn't super impressive for patent pros.  No big cases, no big verdicts.  Just paper pushing.  I can understand if you want it to stand out, but it certainly doesn't scream dated to me.  Just my two cents. 

I did find one local firm that does things a little differently.  I'm going to send you a PM with the site so you can take a look.  I don't like it personally, but maybe its more in line with what you're looking for.  These were recently redone on this site because I know they weren't like this the last time I was on it.  No wall of text, certainly. 

[hbomdiggity]

I'm mostly transactional for a specific industry, but I do lots of different stuff that I can list.

I like your last example of "drafted over x patents" etc. Can you also break it down into sub tasks that maybe people may not realize go in to the summary tasks? Something that makes potential clients realize you don't just sit in your office and draft patents in a vacuum.

[niq]

Are there patents you drafted that were subsequently used in successful infringement cases, etc.? Does the drafter get any credit for that?