Patent Attorney — Life Sciences & Chemistry (Ph.D.) in Washington, District of Columbia at Hylton-Rodic Law PLLC

Washington, DC | Full-Time | Primarily In-Person

You have already done hard things.

You earned a Ph.D.

You became a lawyer.

You chose patent law.

So here is a more interesting question:

What kind of patent lawyer do you want to become?

HYLTON-RODIC LAW is looking for a junior Ph.D.-trained patent attorney who wants to become exceptionally good at this profession—and who wants more from a career than simply advancing from one associate class year to the next.

We are a growing Washington, DC intellectual property boutique serving sophisticated life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical, university, startup, and other innovation-driven clients.

We have been building this firm for a decade.

And we are nowhere near finished.

We are ambitious about the quality of our legal work. Serious about client service. Curious about better ways to practice law. And deliberate about building a firm where excellent lawyers can do genuinely challenging work and still have lives outside of it.

If you are looking for somewhere to coast, this is not it.

If you are looking for somewhere to grow, contribute, question, learn, own, and help build what comes next, keep reading.

Why a Ph.D.?

Because the scientific training matters here.

Our attorneys routinely step into unfamiliar technologies, absorb complicated technical material, work through data, identify what matters, ask questions when the answer is not obvious, and translate sophisticated science into legal strategy.

We value the intellectual agility, rigor, curiosity, and comfort with uncertainty that excellent doctoral training can develop.

The credential alone will not get you hired. What you can do with that training will.

Our Core Profile

We are looking for someone with:

• A Ph.D. in a relevant life sciences, chemistry, biochemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, or closely related discipline;
• A J.D.;
• Active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction;
• Active USPTO registration;
• Approximately 1–2+ years of substantive patent prosecution experience; and
• The scientific depth, writing ability, judgment, curiosity, and learning velocity to develop into an exceptional patent practitioner.

Relevant prosecution experience may have been gained as an attorney, patent agent, student associate, or technical specialist.

We care more about what you actually did than the title you held while doing it.

Exceptional candidates with somewhat less traditional experience may also be considered where demonstrated capability is unusually strong.

This Is a Producing Attorney Role

You will not sit on the sidelines waiting years for meaningful work.

You also will not receive autonomy merely because your résumé says you trained somewhere impressive.

At HRL, our philosophy is simple: Competence + judgment + ownership = trust = autonomy.

You will receive rigorous feedback and substantive guidance as you learn our clients, standards, and approach.

Then we expect something in return: Growth.

As your capabilities develop, your responsibility will grow.

The goal is not permanent supervision.

The goal is to help you become the lawyer who no longer needs it.

What You Will Do

You will work on sophisticated patent matters involving real technologies, real businesses, and real strategic decisions.

Depending on your experience and demonstrated capabilities, your work may include:

• Drafting patent applications;
• Analyzing Office Actions and cited prior art;
• Developing claim amendments and prosecution strategy;
• Drafting substantive Office Action responses;
• Conducting prior-art and patentability analyses;
• Participating in inventor and scientist interviews;
• Supporting U.S. and international patent prosecution;
• Working with foreign associates;
• Learning to evaluate individual prosecution decisions in the context of a broader portfolio;
• Communicating directly with clients and inventors as your capabilities develop;
• Managing deadlines and developing ownership of your docket;
• Working effectively with legal-support professionals to move matters forward; and
• Increasingly participating in the strategic thinking behind the work—not merely producing the document at the end of it.

We want you to learn not only what excellent patent lawyers do.

We want you to understand why.

We Are Building Something

HYLTON-RODIC LAW is not a startup.

We have been doing this for a decade.

But we have retained something that growing institutions sometimes lose: Curiosity about how much better we can become.

We do not assume that “this is how law firms have always done it” means “this is the best way to do it.”

We continually ask:

• Can we serve the client better?
• Can we make the work better?
• Can we develop our people better?
• Can technology eliminate work that adds no value?
• Can better systems make excellent execution more reliable?
• Can we build a sophisticated legal practice without importing every dysfunction of traditional law-firm culture?

We do not change things simply to be different.

We observe. We question. We learn. We improve.

In that sense, we approach the practice itself with some of the curiosity our attorneys once brought to the laboratory.

Adventurous about possibility. Disciplined about execution.

If you want to enter a completely finished institution where your job is simply to occupy an established box, there are excellent firms built for that.

We are building the next chapter of ours.

Who Thrives Here

We like people with healthy ambition.

People who want something from their careers.

You do not need to know exactly where you will be ten years from now.

But you should care deeply about what you are becoming along the way.

You may thrive here if you:

• Want to become genuinely excellent at patent practice;
• Love difficult science and are not intimidated by unfamiliar technology;
• Learn quickly and ask good questions;
• Take pride in excellent writing;
• Want feedback because you want to improve;
• Are intellectually confident enough to contribute and humble enough to be coached;
• Take ownership instead of waiting to be chased;
• Are resourceful when the answer is not obvious;
• Follow through reliably;
• Care about the client—not merely completing the assignment;
• Want increasing responsibility and are prepared to earn it;
• Enjoy working with smart people without needing to compete with them;
• Can rally when genuinely demanding client work requires it; and
• Find the idea of helping build a growing firm exciting rather than unsettling.

When you encounter something you do not know, we want your instinct to be: “How do I figure this out?”

This Role May Not Be for You If...

• You are looking for a smaller firm because you expect smaller expectations.
• You believe the prestige of your current or former firm should determine how much responsibility or autonomy you receive here.
• You want credit for having trained somewhere excellent without being eager to demonstrate what you actually learned there.
• You need someone else to identify every next step.
• You become defensive when excellent lawyers challenge or substantially revise your work.
• You want autonomy before you have demonstrated the judgment to exercise it.
• You view deadlines as somebody else’s responsibility to manage.
• You are primarily looking for somewhere comfortable to land.
• You want “work-life balance” to mean professional obligations always stop when your preferred schedule does.
• Or you are looking for the safest possible next step on a predetermined career ladder.

That is not what we are offering.

We are offering an opportunity to build.

That means high expectations.

Accountability.

Learning.

Sometimes being uncomfortable because you are attempting something you have not yet mastered.

Responsibility that grows when you grow.

And a simple rule:

Prior pedigree never substitutes for performance.

For the right person, that is the point.

Your Career. Your Accelerator.

We believe high performers should have some agency over what they optimize for in a particular season of their lives.

HRL’s standard expectation is approximately 1,700 billed hours.

Build an excellent practice there.

Do outstanding work.

Go home.

Have a life.

Want to push harder in a particular year?

Go for it.

Associates can unlock progressively higher annual cash compensation at higher production levels through HRL’s performance-based compensation program.

If you are saving for a house, paying down student loans, aggressively building wealth—or simply enjoy running hard—we are not going to put an artificial ceiling on that ambition.

Exceptional production and performance can unlock $75,000+ in additional annual cash compensation.

The other side of that equation matters just as much: We do not believe in performing work for the sake of looking busy.

When the work demands intensity, we show up.

When it does not, you should not need to manufacture it.

And no, you do not need to leave your office light on when you go home so someone walking the halls at 8:00 p.m. thinks you are still working.

If you know, you know.

We care about excellent work, client service, ownership, efficiency, and results.

Not theater.

Compensation

Base Salary: $140,000–$165,000

Placement within the range is based on demonstrated experience, substantive patent-prosecution capability, scientific background, writing ability, judgment, and expected level of contribution—not simply years since graduation.

Performance-Based Compensation

HRL’s standard annual expectation is approximately 1,700 billed hours.

Associates who choose to take on greater production can unlock progressively higher annual cash compensation through the firm’s performance-based compensation program.

Exceptional production and performance can unlock $75,000+ in additional annual cash compensation.

Performance-based compensation is subject to applicable production, quality, efficiency, client-service, case-management, and other firm performance standards.

High Standards and Humanity Are Not Opposites

Excellent legal work sometimes requires intensity.

There will be demanding days.

There will occasionally be matters that require everyone to rally.

Sophisticated client service is not perfectly predictable, and we will not pretend otherwise.

But permanent emergency is not a business model.

We believe people do their best work when high performance is sustainable.

Our benefits and working environment currently include:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance;
• Employer-subsidized individual medical coverage;
• 401(k) with employer match;
• Life insurance;
• Short- and long-term disability coverage;
• Commuter benefits;
• Paid time off;
• Paid firm holidays;
• Three Mental Health Days;
• Birthday leave;
• Annual year-end firm closure through New Year’s;
• Sunshine Fridays / early Fridays when applicable performance targets are met;
• Floating remote days;
• Primarily in-person work in our Adams Morgan, Washington, DC office, with flexibility when life genuinely calls for it; and
• HRL’s Sabbatical Program, providing extended paid leave at milestone anniversaries.

Work hard. Live well. That’s the HRL way.

Why Primarily In Person?

We believe junior lawyers develop faster when they actually work alongside the people teaching them.

Questions happen in real time.

Strategy gets discussed before it becomes a polished memo.

You hear how experienced attorneys think through difficult issues.

You learn not only from formal assignments, but from proximity.

That matters particularly in a small, collaborative practice.

At the same time, life happens.

HRL provides floating remote days and flexibility when it genuinely makes sense.

We are not interested in presenteeism.

We are interested in development, contribution, and results.

Tell Us Something Real. Tell Us Something Human.

Yes, we require a cover letter.

But we are not looking for a traditional one.

We already have your résumé. You do not need to walk us through it again.

And we do not care what tools you use to help you think, organize, or write.

We want to meet the person behind the credentials.

There is no formula, and there is no “right” answer.

Please respond to two questions:

1. What should we know about you?

Tell us something that helps us understand the person behind the résumé—what drives you, what you are unusually good at, what you are chasing, something you have learned about yourself, or simply something you think matters.

You decide what is worth telling us.

2. Three years from now, what do you hope is different about you as a lawyer?

Not just your title or where you work.

When you imagine the lawyer you would like to be three years from now, what can that person do that you cannot do yet?

Tell us something real. Tell us something human.

We would rather meet you than read the cover letter you think a law firm wants to receive.

Our Selection Process

We take hiring seriously because we take development seriously.

Initial applicants should submit:

• Resume/CV; and
• The cover letter described above.

Candidates who advance may be asked to complete a short video assessment and provide additional materials, including:

• Unofficial undergraduate transcript;
• Unofficial graduate transcript;
• Unofficial law-school transcript; and
• Representative patent-prosecution writing samples.

For candidates with substantive prosecution experience, we generally expect to review work that allows us to assess actual analytical and writing capability, including representative Office Action responses where available.

Candidates who advance sufficiently far may also complete a substantive practical assessment.

We do not require every applicant to complete a large technical exercise simply to enter the conversation.

But if you move far enough in our process: We will find out what you can do.

And you should expect to learn quite a bit about us too.

Come Help Us Build the Next Chapter

HYLTON-RODIC LAW is established enough to know who we are.

And ambitious enough to keep getting better.

We are building a sophisticated, modern intellectual property practice around excellent science, rigorous lawyering, thoughtful systems, genuine ownership, exceptional client service, and the belief that talented people should be able to build remarkable careers without surrendering everything else that makes life worth living.

We are not looking for someone who simply wants a different job.

We are looking for someone who sees possibility here.

Someone ambitious enough to want more.

Humble enough to keep learning.

Disciplined enough to deliver.

And adventurous enough to help build something.

You have already chosen patent law.

What kind of patent practitioner do you want to become?

If you are ready to find out, come help us build the next chapter.