Is a science major limiting for a career in patent law?
November 9th, 2009 | 
Author: I’m going to a be a senior in high school this year, and am considering intellectual property law as a career. I realize that in order to be eligible to take the bar exam, I need to major in physics, biology, chemistry, or engineering (sorry if I forgot a few).
If I majored in biology or chemistry, would I be restricted to only working with medical/science related patents? If so, how limiting would that be? Would that hurt my chances in getting into a big law firm?
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Majoring in science before law school is rather fashionable right now. Familiarity with the terminology of even one field is a distihct advantage over someone who majored in the humanities as an undergraduate. I doubt it would hinder you at a large firm, and if you chose you might be able to specialize even further in biomedical patents or the like.
If you want to become a patent attorney, I would strongly suggest you major in electrical engineering. While many undergraduate disciplines are eligible for the patent bar exam, employers are heavily favoring EE’s when hiring attorneys. My EE classmates with the lowest law school GPA’s are still getting job offers, even in this economy.
If you major in chem/bio, you would likely get a fair share of chem/bio applications, but would also get a trickle of other technologies, depending on the firm you work for. If you want to work at a big law firm, go EE (or at least an engineering discipline), try to get into the best law school you can, and study hard while in law school.