Legal Writing

You’re a small associate in the IP department of a great big law firm. While you’re so thankful that, unlike some other associates, you still have a job, you’re not satisfied. You’re not doing the work you really want to be doing, and some of the partners are just . . . well . . . acting like overgrown children with needs you can’t meet.

You’re thinking you’d rather be in corporate law than big law, and you’d rather work for a high-tech firm than a big-ego firm.

And guess what? I’ve got a plan to help you get your way. Here it is, just for you, and free for the taking.

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The experts say the recession is likely to end this Fall. High-tech firms will be back in gear, and they’ll be looking for in-house counselors to handle, among others, their IP matters. And you want them to find you once they start looking.

Then get to work on your article, the one that’s going to appear in the Managing Intellectual Property, or Capitalism Magazine. Heck, do a bang-up job of it, and your article could wind up in the Wall Street Journal in six months.

What article? Why, the one that’s going to so impress your next boss that he calls, asks you to lunch, and then offers you what you want ? a position handling IP matters for a young, high-tech company with great products and even greater prospects.

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What’s the article about? I’m not quite sure, but it’s inspired by the feud between Apple and certain developers of iPhone apps. And the timing of it all couldn’t be better for you.

Consider this article that appeared in yesterday’s paper. It tells the story of how the Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the U.S. Copyright Office for an exemption to 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1) so people can install whatever applications they like on their iPhones, and not just the applications that Apple has blessed. It describes how Apple has responded by filing a brief that describes just how terrible such an exemption would be for it and its customers. And it notes that the Copyright Office is expected to rule on the issue this October.

And that’s when your article will appear, because editors just love it when someone brings them a thoughtful, well written piece that complements the news. They just can’t get enough of it.

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So, what are you waiting for? Start doing your research. Interview those who attended hearings on the issue in Washington last week, or at Stanford the week before.

Get both sides of the story. Find some good contacts at EFF and Apple to talk to.  

Talk to developers of iPhone applications, and people who use iPhones. Talk to the digerati at Wired and at engadget who are following this.

Then put on your big thinking cap.

What’s going to be the focus of your article? It’s inspired by a dispute, but what’s going to be unique about your article? What’s going to set it apart from so many others? What’s going to get an editor to select your article instead of another, written by another hopeful associate reading this post?

Get to work! Make your escape, and cause that handshake to happen.