« phosita ::: quick links for 2005-03-23 | Main | Presentation of Counsel Opinion Letters at Trial »

March 23, 2005

embedded patent law firm

The back and forth between Buchanan, Krajec and myself on the Embedded Patent Attorney concept (a term coined by Buchanan) has certainly stirred up a lot of debate. If you missed any of the discussions, you can find them here, here, here, here and here.   The discussion even caused a bit of a controversy over at one business blog.

Let’s push the concept one step further… is your patent law firm embedded?

Buchanan laid out a series of tests to determine whether an attorney is embedded and, with some minor amendments, these same criteria can and should apply to an embedded law firm as well. 

An embedded patent firm consistently:

• invests time and money in ensuring its attorneys learn the business plan and objectives of the client;
  
• unshackles from the billable hour requirement in order to encourage its attorneys to become trusted advisors to the client;
  
• advocates that its attorneys use the business knowledge gained as the starting point for all legal matters for the client;
  
• integrates its attorneys into the business systems and creative processes of the client;
  
• fosters in its attorneys a long-term outlook on any relationship with the client;
  
• seeks and hires passionate and creative individuals first, pedigrees second; and
  
• sees every client as a firm client, where everyone in the firm is interested in the clients’ business and personnel. 

While this list is by no means exhaustive, it illustrates that it isn’t enough to simply hire an embedded patent attorney — the firm itself must be embedded as well. 

Is your current firm embedded?  If not, you may want to rethink ….

Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 01:52 PM.
Permalink: embedded patent law firm
| Comments (1) | Sphere: Related Content