Self-study
I'm currently one year out of undergrad, I'm a slightly unconventional applicant as I have no experience in any legal fields, I work as a scientist at a biotechnology company and I was hoping to apply for a patent lawyer. As the title suggests I'm wondering if I should apply in the F26 cycle
Reasons I’m considering applying this cycle:
Applicant numbers seem to keep increasing year over year, so I’m worried waiting could make things more competitive
The job market feels unstable and I’m not fully confident I can secure or maintain employment for another year
Reasons I’m considering waiting:
I currently have no legal experience. If I wait and get some now, would a few months actually make a meaningful difference for admissions?
Does the type of experience matter a lot for patent law (e.g. patent/IP vs general legal work), or is any legal exposure worth my time? I’ve heard that legal experience isn’t really expected for patent-focused applicants, so I’m unsure how much weight to give this. I've also previously tried applying for patent related positions and got nothing back before being recruited for my current scientist position.
For context, I’m sitting at a 3.65 GPA and a 170 LSAT which I will most likely retake.
Would appreciate any thoughts, especially from people who applied with/without legal experience or made a similar timing decision.
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2 comments
@TheBigFatPanda - From the admissions perspective (and the "law school employee" perspective), I'd really frame this as "what do you really want to do a year from now?" Would you rather be getting ready to apply and working one more year OR would you rather be getting ready to enroll in law school?
Forget the other stuff (will the app pool ALWAYS get more competitive? will the job market keep being tight?) because it's hard to project things out more than a year at a time. For example, I can't tell you what the app pool will look like in 2027-2028. All I can tell you is that we have signs that this upcoming year's applicant pool likely won't shrink (and that's based on Feb and April LSAT test taking numbers going up a smidge versus last year).
Regarding getting direct legal experience before law school, that isn't necessary in order to be a competitive applicant. For example, what if someone has been an accountant for five years and wants to go into tax law? From an admissions perspective, I appreciate their deep professional background in their chosen field and that a legal education is really a supplement to what they've already done. In the case of someone with your kind of STEM background, I wouldn't necessarily expect to see direct legal experience in the world of tech, patent, IP, biomedical, pharma, etc. I'd expect to see direct professional experience and that's exactly what you have.
I hope that helps you figure things out! Fingers crossed for you!
With an LSAT Score and GPA like that and stable work experience at a "high -value" company , I see no reason why you should wait. Many of my friends , that have been accepted to law school , have almost no law experience and have been accepted. (Disclaimer: this is just based on my experience!)