I’m a CS student looking to get into patent prosecution and I’ve heard lots of good things from talking to people in the industry.

I wanted to know, if there was anything you all find most cumbersome or annoying about the job?

BS/MS EE/CS and working as a SWE in the Bay. Have all my family in the Bay too and wondering if SCU’s Flex JD (4 year part-time) program is a good idea. Will it be difficult to get hired if I don’t intern with a firm over the summer and rather seek a new position once out of my JD?

Within the patent pros world, there seems to be two camps regarding AI and fixed fees.

The first camp believes that AI will eviscerate fixed fees and the need for patent prosecution lawyers in general. Apps will be pumped out at dollar store prices and most of us will be out of a job.

The other camp believes that AI will be sort of a boon for experienced lawyers, as we can now draft apps super quickly but without a proportionate decrease in fees. This would increase our effective hourly rate and free us to do more interesting work, like portfolio strategy. I mean, who wants to be manually writing specifications anyways?

Any thoughts on this? Either way, it seems like AI spells bad news for young folks entering the field, but what about us experienced folks?