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Patent Group Leaves Heller
"Stephanie Seidman, who led the biotech patent group at Heller Ehrman and was the first to make the move to Fish & Richardson, said her decision was based on the different cultures of a general-practice firm such as Heller Ehrman and a patent-focused practice such as Fish & Richardson.
In a patent operation, a firm often hires scientists with doctorates and trains them to be attorneys – often footing the bill for law school – whereas general practice firms hire associate attorneys out of law school. The emphasis on science of a patent firm was attractive for her and others in the group that was hired away, Seidman said."
What is interesting about this is that F&R has been moving more and more toward a GP model in recent years, particularly in their SD office. Also, from the experiences of some friends of mine (albeit in other F&R offices than San Diego), while they do have some patent agents go to law school on the firm's dime, they mostly hire law school graduates who have summered or Fed. Cir. clerks. That being said, F&R's biotech practice is pretty strong firm-wide, so probably the real reason is greener pastures (in some "cultures", apparently, less green pastures are prefered.)
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