Saransh Singh was a law student studying in Mithibai Law College in Mumbai.
He was happy when he landed his first internship at a prestigious IP firm Bar & Brief in his 3rd year.
It was in many ways a dream come true for him as he always wanted to be an intellectual property lawyer.
His goal was to get practical exposure to IP laws and real life client work during the internship, like his teachers and seniors had advised.
He was looking forward to some training and mentorship.
However, reality was nothing like he imagined.
Although he wanted to do a lot of work, he wasn’t assigned any significant tasks, and shockingly, no one really expected much from him either.
A senior remarked – how could a student with mere theoretical knowledge at best contribute to the firm’s work?
How could they count on such a person?
Although his seniors were swamped with their own work and had no time to mentor him and he desperately wanted to help them, it was clear to them that he couldn’t, given his current state of preparation.
What if he/she made mistakes? It would take more time for the seniors to make corrections.
Why couldn’t they train him, he asked a senior at the cafeteria one day?
The senior answered, “What was the point of training an intern when that intern would be back to college the next month?”
There was no benefit for the firm.
Saransh learned these harsh truths over his first 10 days at the internship.
He completed his internship without any eventful occurrences.
He was just asked to find case laws on the internet and proofread his senior’s work.
It wasn’t the firm’s fault, he understood.
He spent the remaining time figuring out what he would need to do so that he could perform at his next internship.
He realised that he was not equipped to perform even the most basic work that his seniors were doing at the firm – conducting trademark searches, drafting user affidavits, etc.
He realised that if he knew how to perform those tasks, he would be very productive and may even land a call back or a job offer!
That is when Saransh took the matter in his own hands and started learning practical skills. He asked us to help him professionally so that he could reliably learn 20 most important tasks as an intellectual property lawyer.
Here are just 6 of them:
- Preparing and filing patent applications meticulously, ensuring compliance with stringent regulatory standards and deadlines.
- Drafting technically precise claims and responses to office actions.
- Honing research skills to conduct comprehensive trademark searches, identifying potential conflicts and advising clients on brand protection strategies.
- Analyzing trademark databases and drafting clear opinions proved invaluable.
- Gaining expertise in navigating IP prosecution procedures.
- Managing patent and trademark registrations, drafting petitions and managing responses to office actions with precision.
Saransh continued to apply, this time adding the list of new skills that he was learning in his CV.
He also attached sample assignments that he had performed as a way to corroborate that he knew those skills.
Within 4 months of following this plan, Saransh was able to secure an internship with another boutique IP firm, Sridhar Legal Associates.
This time, he felt more confident to ask associates for work.
It took a while for him to explain that he was equipped to handle practical assignments as the seniors were not expecting an intern to know how to do these things.
They decided to give it a shot.
Saransh assisted his seniors in drafting a few licensing agreements and got involved in IP portfolio management for existing clients of the firm.
He also assisted in drafting notices of opposition and counter-statements for trademark applications, and the firm won a major opposition case that he worked on with his senior, which landed a retainer with a major client.
That’s when the firm decided to extend his internship!
He used this track record to get an internship with Dhir & Dhir Associates, where he has been interning for the past 2 months.
His goal is to get a good job in an IP law firm, and we believe that he’s on track.
Here is what he plans to do next:
- Apply for jobs at Tier 1 law firms and top IP law firms
- Apply for assessment internships or job interviews at any of the firms where he interned at
This is possible to achieve in another 3-6 months.
We have helped 100s of young lawyers to do this.
Here is a list of 90+ law students who secured internships in IP law firms.
Here is a list of 90+ lawyers whom we helped to secure jobs.
Would you like to know how you can do it too?
Join us live for a free, 3-day online bootcamp where we will show you how you can get top IP law firm internships and jobs in India and even earn on the side as a college student while working on IP law assignments for US IP law firms.
Recordings will not be available, so make sure you mark your calendar and attend live!
See you there!
Regards,
Kritika Singh and Sonali Parashar