How Law Firms Help Technical Experts Pass the Bar

By Rani Mehta

Director Deirdre M. Wells was quoted in the Managing IP article “How Law Firms Help Technical Experts Pass the Bar,” which features counsel at three firms explaining how and why they pay non-lawyer employees with a technical background to attend law school. The following is an excerpt from the article:

“Deirdre Wells, director at Sterne Kessler in Washington DC, says the number of employees that take advantage of this depends on the year. ‘There’s no set amount,’ she says. ‘It just depends on what candidates there are.’

But she says the firm is generally looking for people who can understand and apply difficult technical and legal concepts, show a sound and thorough ability to do complex legal research and analysis, and who are organized.’

She adds that employees can be part of this at any time – some start it from the beginning of their work with their firm while others have been working there for many years. ‘There’s a couple different avenues,’ she adds.”