Patent Attorney — Life Sciences & Chemistry (Ph.D.)

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.

Relevant prosecution experience may have been gained as an attorney, patent agent, student associate, or technical specialist.

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 learn not only what excellent patent lawyers do.

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 do not change things simply to be different.

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.