I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Morrison Foerster (San Francisco, CA) in Oct 2021
Interview
I had a colleague in the company and was introduced to the recruiter. I had a 30min call with the recruiter, followed by a 30min. phone screen with an attorney, then a writing exercise where I was asked to summarize two patents, then the "real" interview: 3hrs of 30min. one-on-one interviews where you meet the team. The entire process took about 3 months.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Most of the questions were very standard: why Mofo, why Law, how do you deal with difficult people, how would you build a team, explain your PhD thesis: most folks were very collegial and professional.
I did get questions from the partners about a) how long my PhD took (and was that "normal", b) what I had included or not on my cover letter (with the undertone I had purposely left something out: 1 page limited space) I was asked about previous jobs (start-ups), Be prepared to defend your CV history. There was concern I would not be able to transition from a scientist to a patent agent (please note PhDs were required for this application).
I interviewed at Morrison Foerster (San Francisco, CA)
Interview
Screening interview was first. About a week or so later, I had to do a writing exercise. The exercise consisted of providing a 1-page summary for two patents. The purpose of the exercise is to target each summary at an audience that is generally well-read, comfortable with the basic principles of science, and curious about the topic, but not deeply experienced in the specific technical art of the piece. Each summary should include an explanation of why the patented technology should be of interest to the audience. For example, the piece may be similar to one that would appear in "Popular Science" or the Science section of the New York Times. The patents were US 6,033,857 and US 7,487,719. Finally, I did an interview with the team, including a patent agent, attorneys, and a partner.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why am I interested in this career. What transferable skills do I have. When have I had to deal with a problem at the workplace
A month after submitting the application, a 30 minute phone interview with a patent agent was scheduled by a recruiting specialist. The scheduling process was quick, as the recruiting specialist was very responsive. For the phone interview, it felt like the interviewer did not prepare questions
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why are you interested in the position and the firm? and a few others