A few months ago I switched jobs. I used to be a legal assistant to four attorneys in various practice areas Bankruptcy law, commercial litigation, transportation law, etc. If you are curious as to what I did back then check out my day in the life post. However, I was looking into specializing in a practice area of law; and to really dig into the nitty gritty of what a paralegal does. I was getting a feel for that specifically in being a litigation paralegal. In that part of my role I was assisting in depositions, preparing the witnesses, researching, and mainly I was the one who handled all exhibits. This was my favorite part of the job. I was the right hand person to the attorney throughout all the court proceedings.
The main difference between that job and my new job as an Intellectual Property Services Assistant is my work is extremely broken up. Basically my day is a lot of little projects. Most of which have a long life span that requires follow-up and additional steps in the future.
My official title is an IP Services Assistant mainly helping in the health sciences trademark practice. For trademark practices with large and busy portfolios, we have to stay on top of a set of prosecution deadlines. We are required to quickly get reporting letters out to the clients on actionable deadlines; even if they are a few years out. While also continuing to follow up with the client for orders. So normally I split up my day. If I have a project I work on it in the morning, and in the afternoon I move onto reporting letters and maintaining the clients trademark process. As I progress in this role I will be filing trademark applications, which is quite the process. So here is a day in the life of a trademark paralegal:
9:30 Start the Day
I start the day by checking my emails and move onto the my task folders. The folders are broken up in uploading documents to the clients docketing system and preparing reporting letters.
10:00-11:00
Upload the documents into the client docketing system while making sure all documents are up-to-date.
11:00 Check In with Team
From 11:00 to 12:00 I have a weekly checkin with the team. This is where we address any issues or new updates that the client might want us to implement. We make sure that my billable hours are up to date and I am done with any projects that are pending.
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch Break
Pretty self explanatory. I take my lunch break, but since I am working from home I take this as a semi-productive time and make sure things around the house are tidy.
1:00 – 5:00
This is when I switch over to the next set of tasks so if I did uploads in the morning I turn over to reporting letters at this time. A reporting letter is basically reporting to the client where their trademark is in the process. If it is a US filing it could be the USPTO updates for example if their trademark has been published for opposition. If it is a foreign filing the foreign trademark office would communicate where the Madrid Protocol application is, but we need to coordinate with the client on getting priority documentation to counsel.
5:00-5:30 Review Timesheet
Review my billable hours for the day and make sure all 7 hours of my day are accounted for. This doesn’t all need to be billable hours, but in order for me to be on track for my billable requirement for the year I need to bill at least 3 hours a day.
As I advance in this role I will begin to handle Office Action responses that requires setting up draft responses, preparing proper responses/arguments, and preparing the USPTO response forms. Keeping track of foreign counsel is also a huge part because we serve a multinational clientele who have different needs and requirements. Hope you enjoyed what a day in the life of a trademark paralegal looks like.
Very interesting to be taken behind the scenes. Thank you