2009 Patent Law Interview Program: Employer Information

The Loyola Patent Law Interview Program is a two-day interview program held in Chicago each summer that brings together patent law employers and law students from across the country to interview for summer associate positions and post-graduate employment. The 2009 Patent Law Interview Program will be held on Thursday, July 30 & Friday, July 31 at the Embassy Suites Chicago - Downtown/Lakefront at 511 North Columbus Drive in Downtown Chicago. All hotel reservations for the program are handled through Loyola.


Each year roughly 1,500 law students register for the program, submit their resumes, and bid on interviews with the nation-wide employers that interest them. The program is entirely employer selected - which means that participating employers review the resumes submitted to them and choose the law students they are interested in interviewing at the program.

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   HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS FOR EMPLOYERS

The Loyola Patent Law Interview Program is an entirely employer selected program - which means that employers choose all of the students they wish to interview based on student resumes. When registering, employers have the opportunity to designate which offices they are interviewing for, which technical backgrounds they are interested in, and what their hiring criteria are. Participating law students see this information and have the opportunity to "bid" on interviews with participating firms by submitting their resume to 32 potential employers.

On May 13, employers will be able to see the resumes of all the students who have bid on them. After reviewing the resumes, employers select 16 students per interview schedule, and up to 16 alternates per interview schedule. Alternates are students to be scheduled in the event that any of the original 16 students cancels an interview. Employer selections are due by June 1.

Once employers have selected the students they wish to interview, we schedule the students for interviews. When students receive their interview schedules on June 16, they have the option of canceling any interviews they do not wish to attend. When student cancellations are finished, we schedule students selected as alternates into any empty slots created by cancellations. Once this process is complete, final interview schedules will be available to employers on June 24.

The interview program itself takes place on Thursday, July 30 and Friday, July 31. All of the interview rooms at the program are suites, so interviewers who stay in the interview rooms can shut the door on their sleeping area and conduct the interviews in the living room area of the suite. Interviews run from 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. - each interview is 20 minutes long, with 5 minute breaks between interviews. There is a lunch break each day from 12:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Employers interested in meeting with more than just the students they select often choose to host a hospitality suite for all students interviewing at the program. The hospitality suite will be a corner king room adjacent to the employer's interview room(s). Employers often bring one or more attorneys and a recruiting professional to staff the hospitality suite and interact with students in a more casual setting than an interview.

Thursday evening, from 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m., there is a cocktail reception for all participating employers and students at the interview hotel. This cocktail party is an excellent opportunity to meet with students in a more informal setting - as well as to catch up with colleagues in the patent law field from across the country. 

 

   EMPLOYER REGISTRATION

Employer registration for the 2009 Patent Law Interview Program will be handled online again this year. Employer registration will begin on Monday, March 2 and will end on Tuesday, April 7.

Please note that you cannot register for the Patent Program through Symplicity. All requests for schedules at the 2009 Patent Law Interview Program must be made through our online registration site.

Please also note that the Patent Law Interview Program is no longer a part of Symplicity's OneStop program. Last year, some multi-office employers experienced technical difficulties viewing all of the schedules they were registered for. We believe that these problems resulted from certain contacts having been added through OneStop. To prevent any similar problems this year, we have asked that Symplicity remove the Patent Program from OneStop, and we will recreate all contacts in Symplicity from the information you provide us through our online registration.

 

   FEES

Registration Fee: $600 per employer

Interview Room: $700 per day
Each interview room includes sleeping accommodations the night before the interviews; breakfast the morning of the interviews; a 16-slot interview schedule running from 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.; and the opportunity to arrange your interview schedule(s) by city, technical background, and/or practice area.

Hospitality Suite: $700 per day
Each hospitality suite includes sleeping accommodations the night before the hospitality suite; breakfast the morning of the hospitality suite; a late check out so that the hospitality suite can remain open until 5:00 p.m.; a sign for the hospitality suite, customizable with your logo; and publicity for your hospitality suite to all interviewing students.

Extra Sleeping Room: $400 per day
For interviewers wishing to stay the night after the interviews, or if you plan to bring more than one interviewer per interview room, extra sleeping rooms include overnight accommodations with breakfast in the morning and a 12:00 noon checkout.

 

   SCHEDULING

This year, online registration will allow you to make more specific requests for your interview schedules by location, technical background, or area of practice. In past, employers have asked that we organize their schedules by city (e.g. one Chicago interview schedule and one San Francisco/LA interview schedule), by technical background (e.g. one Electrical Engineering schedule and one Biochem schedule), or by area of practice (e.g. one IP Litigation schedule and one Patent Prosecution schedule).

These requests are not difficult to deal with in Symplicity if we know about the specific criteria for each schedule before the students begin bidding, but are much more difficult to address after student bidding is underway. Accordingly, our online registration system will request that you provide this information when you register. We will set up these cities, technical backgrounds, and areas of practice in Symplicity so that students can bid based on their interests and background.

We know that many employers need to make changes to the number of interview suites and extra sleeping rooms that they have ordered after they register. This year, you will be able to log onto the registration system to make changes to your registration. Changes to interview schedules can be made online until April 20, and changes to extra sleeping rooms can be made online until June 19. The invoice that will be emailed to you in July will account for any changes you have made online by these dates.

We know that employers often need to change the number of interview rooms they have registered for after they view the student resumes. You will be able to adjust the number of interview rooms you are registered for through the end of May by contacting us directly.

 

   PARTICIPATING CLASS YEARS

As usual, you will have the option of selecting whether you would like to interview 2L, 3L, and/or LLM students at the 2009 Patent Law Interview Program. This year, the program will be accepting registrations from:

 

   RESUME COLLECT

Employers who are not able to attend the program but wish to receive resumes from interested students can request a resume collect. In response to an employer's stated needs and hiring criteria, students submit resumes electronically, and the employer receives an electronic packet of all resumes submitted. A resume collect costs $300. To request a resume collect, please fill out the resume collect form and fax or email it to our office at 312-915-7194 or Law-PatentProgram@luc.edu.

 

   EMPLOYER IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE 2009 PATENT PROGRAM

 

Monday, March 2 Employer Registration Begins
Tuesday, April 7 Deadline for Employer Registration ($600 Registration Fee due)
Monday, April 20 Deadline for Interview Room & Criteria Changes Online
Wednesday, April 22 Student Bidding Begins
Monday, May 11 Deadline for Student Bidding
Wednesday, May 13 Employers Can View Student Bids on Symplicity
Monday, June 1 Deadline for Selecting Student Interviews & Alternates
Thursday, June 11 Initial Interview Schedules Available to Employers on Symplicity
Tuesday, June 16 Initial Interview Schedules Available to Students
Tuesday, June 16 - Sunday, June 21 Student Interview Cancellation Period
Friday, June 19 Deadline for Extra Sleeping Room Changes Online
Week of Monday, June 22 Invoices for Room Charges Emailed to Employers (Payment Due by July 30)
Wednesday, June 24 Final Interview Schedules Available on Symplicity
Thursday, July 30 & Friday, July 31 2009 Patent Law Interview Program
 

 

   CONTACT INFORMATION

We are using the email address Law-PatentProgram@luc.edu again this year.

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