Description:
Description:Washington, DC | Full-Time | Primarily In-Person
You have already done hard things.
You earned a Ph.D.
You became a lawyer.
You chose patent law.
So here is a more interesting question:
What kind of patent lawyer do you want to become?
HYLTON-RODIC LAW is looking for a junior Ph.D.-trained patent attorney who wants to become exceptionally good at this profession—and who wants more from a career than simply advancing from one associate class year to the next.
We are a growing Washington, DC intellectual property boutique serving sophisticated life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical, university, startup, and other innovation-driven clients.
We have been building this firm for a decade.
And we are nowhere near finished.
We are ambitious about the quality of our legal work. Serious about client service. Curious about better ways to practice law. And deliberate about building a firm where excellent lawyers can do genuinely challenging work and still have lives outside of it.
If you are looking for somewhere to coast, this is not it.
If you are looking for somewhere to grow, contribute, question, learn, own, and help build what comes next, keep reading.
Why a Ph.D.?
Because the scientific training matters here.
Our attorneys routinely step into unfamiliar technologies, absorb complicated technical material, work through data, identify what matters, ask questions when the answer is not obvious, and translate sophisticated science into legal strategy.
We value the intellectual agility, rigor, curiosity, and comfort with uncertainty that excellent doctoral training can develop.
The credential alone will not get you hired. What you can do with that training will.
Our Core Profile
We are looking for someone with:
- A Ph.D. in a relevant life sciences, chemistry, biochemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, or closely related discipline;
- A J.D.;
- Active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction;
- Active USPTO registration;
- Approximately 1–2+ years of substantive patent prosecution experience; and
- The scientific depth, writing ability, judgment, curiosity, and learning velocity to develop into an exceptional patent practitioner.
We care more about what you actually did than the title you held while doing it.
Exceptional candidates with somewhat less traditional experience may also be considered where demonstrated capability is unusually strong.
This Is a Producing Attorney Role
You will not sit on the sidelines waiting years for meaningful work.
You also will not receive autonomy merely because your résumé says you trained somewhere impressive.
At HRL, our philosophy is simple: Competence + judgment + ownership = trust = autonomy.
You will receive rigorous feedback and substantive guidance as you learn our clients, standards, and approach.
Then we expect something in return: Growth.
As your capabilities develop, your responsibility will grow.
The goal is not permanent supervision.
The goal is to help you become the lawyer who no longer needs it.
What you will do:
You will work on sophisticated patent matters involving real technologies, real businesses, and real strategic decisions.
Depending on your experience and demonstrated capabilities, your work may include:
- Drafting patent applications;
- Analyzing Office Actions and cited prior art;
- Developing claim amendments and prosecution strategy;
- Drafting substantive Office Action responses;
- Conducting prior-art and patentability analyses;
- Participating in inventor and scientist interviews;
- Supporting U.S. and international patent prosecution;
- Working with foreign associates;
- Learning to evaluate individual prosecution decisions in the context of a broader portfolio;
- Communicating directly with clients and inventors as your capabilities develop;
- Managing deadlines and developing ownership of your docket;
- Working effectively with legal-support professionals to move matters forward; and
- Increasingly participating in the strategic thinking behind the work—not merely producing the document at the end of it.
We want you to understand why.
We Are Building Something
HYLTON-RODIC LAW is not a startup.
We have been doing this for a decade.
But we have retained something that growing institutions sometimes lose: Curiosity about how much better we can become.
We do not assume that “this is how law firms have always done it” means “this is the best way to do it.”
We continually ask:
- Can we serve the client better?
- Can we make the work better?
- Can we develop our people better?
- Can technology eliminate work that adds no value?
- Can better systems make excellent execution more reliable?
- Can we build a sophisticated legal practice without importing every dysfunction of traditional law-firm culture?
We observe. We question. We learn. We improve.
In that sense, we approach the practice itself with some of the curiosity our attorneys once brought to the laboratory.
Adventurous about possibility. Disciplined about execution.
If you want to enter a completely finished institution where your job is simply to occupy an established box, there are excellent firms built for that.
We are building the next chapter of ours.
Requirements:
Who Thrives Here
We like people with healthy ambition.
People who want something from their careers.
You do not need to know exactly where you will be ten years from now.
But you should care deeply about what you are becoming along the way.
You may thrive here if you:
- Want to become genuinely excellent at patent practice;
- Love difficult science and are not intimidated by unfamiliar technology;
- Learn quickly and ask good questions;
- Take pride in excellent writing;
- Want feedback because you want to improve;
- Are intellectually confident enough to contribute and humble enough to be coached;
- Take ownership instead of waiting to be chased;
- Are resourceful when the answer is not obvious;
- Follow through reliably;
- Care about the client—not merely completing the assignment;
- Want increasing responsibility and are prepared to earn it;
- Enjoy working with smart people without needing to compete with them;
- Can rally when genuinely demanding client work requires it; and
- Find the idea of helping build a growing firm exciting rather than unsettling.
This Role May Not Be for You If...
- You are looking for a smaller firm because you expect smaller expectations.
- You believe the prestige of your current or former firm should determine how much responsibility or autonomy you receive here.
- You want credit for having trained somewhere excellent without being eager to demonstrate what you actually learned there.
- You need someone else to identify every next step.
- You become defensive when excellent lawyers challenge or substantially revise your work.
- You want autonomy before you have demonstrated the judgment to exercise it.
- You view deadlines as somebody else's responsibility to manage.
- You are primarily looking for somewhere comfortable to land.
- You want “work-life balance” to mean professional obligations always stop when your preferred schedule does.
- Or you are looking for the safest possible next step on a predetermined career ladder.
We are offering an opportunity to build.
That means high expectations.
Accountability.
Learning.
Sometimes being uncomfortable because you are attempting something you have not yet mastered.
Responsibility that grows when you grow.
And a simple rule:
Prior pedigree never substitutes for performance.
For the right person, that is the point.
Your Career. Your Accelerator.
We believe high performers should have some agency over what they optimize for in a particular season of their lives.
HRL's standard expectation is approximately 1,700 billed hours.
Build an excellent practice there.
Do outstanding work.
Go home.
Have a life.
Want to push harder in a particular year?
Go for it.
