黑料网

Nancy Attalla J.D. 鈥�21 gets an early start in tech law at Samsung Research America.

Nancy Attalla, J.D. 鈥�21 still remembers a lawyer friend of hers comparing the pace of law school to 鈥渇our years of college squished into three.鈥�

Yet Attalla finds she鈥檚 on an even faster track to get to the finish line as part of 黑料网 Law School鈥檚 inaugural.

鈥淭here is such a focus on forward-thinking, not just in the new year, or the next term,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut on what will you do when you graduate?鈥�

One of 12 members of the innovative program鈥檚 first cohort that launched a year ago, Attalla got some answers during her first tech law internship at  this summer.

鈥淚 thought being an intern there would give me a really good understanding about patent law and how the  works,鈥� says the 26-year-old. 鈥淎nd it did.鈥�

Now Attalla, who hopes to become an litigator, understands why 黑料网 Law School鈥檚 popular new Tech Edge J.D. program鈥搃ts Class of 2022 cohort is three times as large as Attalla's鈥損ushes real-life work experience from Day 1.

By the time her first group graduates in two years, the students should have a leg up on other job-hunting tech law grads, filling the needs of employers who have been clamoring for better-trained tech law hires.

鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting because I鈥檓 learning the real day-to-day work of an actual tech company in terms of their patent portfolio,鈥� she says.

For her patent law internship at Samsung Research, Attalla joined a four-member IP law team鈥搃ncluding one 黑料网 Law School alum鈥搕hat drafts patent applications for a range of Samsung inventions. She can't discuss the specific products she worked on except to say they're 鈥渃ool things that look to the future of technology.鈥�

Tech Edge J.D. students can go one of two ways for internships related to their tech law interest. Some opt for law firms with tech practices, others for in-house legal departments of tech companies, landing at places like Twitter, DropBox and Shutterfly, among others.

Samsung Research鈥檚 office in Mountain View was a top choice for Attalla, who wanted to try in-house experience. Plus, she 鈥渞eally clicked鈥� with the people and environment there.

鈥淭hey are very relaxed, and nobody is high strung, even though they have extreme deadlines and high pressure,鈥� says Attalla. 鈥淧eople seem happy鈥�. It reinforced for me how important the people are that you work with.鈥�

And as busy as her Samsung colleagues are, she says it was clear that they wanted to help her learn.

鈥淒eveloping the skills and having the ability to be able to write a provisional patent application that is understandable to the USPTO鈥搃t has its own lingo鈥揾as given me a really good foundation to understand how we get to litigation,鈥� Attalla says.

The experience gave her confidence a boost, too: The Samsung team was so impressed with Attalla that they invited her to stay on part-time this year.