Pipeline Programmes: How Firms Encourage Juniors

In the Managing IP article “Pipeline programmes: how firms encourage juniors,” attorneys at five firms discuss how they prepare less experienced attorneys to conduct oral arguments. One method is encouraging junior attorneys to get involved in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s Legal Experience and Advancement Program (LEAP). This provides training and oral advocacy opportunities for less experienced practitioners. Participants typically receive around fifteen additional minutes of argument time during PTAB cases.

As the firm’s co-lead for PTAB LEAP participation, Sterne Kessler Director Graham Phero says clients generally support the idea of letting less experienced lawyers argue. He notes that LEAP presents the “best of both worlds” because it allows more junior attorneys to split the arguments with more senior practitioners.

“That’s the nice thing about LEAP. You can carve out one particular issue for the LEAP participant. They can address that with the judges. And the remaining issues can be discussed by somebody else – generally a more senior attorney,” he says.

He notes, however, that a lot of associates can handle the entire argument and don’t need a senior attorney to argue any part of it.