Ropes & Gray’s Technical Adviser Program

Ropes & Gray’s innovative technical adviser program has been prominently featured in an article, published in The Recorder on Sept. 6, about law firms’ methods to recruit and develop top IP advisers and lawyers. The article details the experiences of Silicon Valley-based IP associate Alexander Shvarts, patent agent Matthew Bertenthal and technical agent Yang Xu in the technical adviser program.

According to The Recorder, quoting IP recruiter Katharine Patterson, “Programs like Ropes & Gray’s address a central problem in the legal profession. To even take the patent bar you must have a technical degree. But passing the exam doesn’t necessarily prepare someone to be a patent attorney.” As Patterson said, “This is an art that must be practiced.”

Intellectual property rights management practice group head Joseph Guiliano and intellectual property partner Mark Rowland are also each quoted in the article regarding the use of the program to expand the practice group by recruiting top talent.

To view the full article, please click here.

Ropes & Gray’s intellectual property group provides a full range of IP rights and management services from licensing and transactions to rights protection and full-scale litigation. With a team of more than 200 lawyers, 40 patent agents and technical advisors and 60 paralegals, Ropes & Gray advises industry innovators on their most challenging issues, anywhere in the world.

In June, the firm won Chambers USA’s 2010 “Award for Excellence” as the leading practice in the United States for intellectual property, and The International Who’s Who of Patent Lawyers has named five Ropes & Gray partners to its distinguished list for 2010. Two other surveys by Managing IP and Asia IP recently ranked Ropes & Gray’s IP practices among the best in the world.