Intellectual Property Attorney: Jenna Saunders

Drafting a motion involves doing legal research to find law that is useful for my arguments and then drafting a brief that summarizes why the judge should rule in our favor. The other party will get a chance to respond to our brief. The judge may also order that we appear for oral arguments. Oral arguments are usually done in court in front of the judge, though some judges will do them over Zoom.  

What is your favorite part of your job? What are your job's biggest challenges?
My favorite part of my job is when I get to work with our expert witnesses. During a recent case, I got to select an expert witness for our case. This required me to interview a variety of different experts until I found the ones I wanted to propose to my team. After we selected an expert, I was their main point of contact, so I worked closely with them to prepare their report and prepare them to testify. It is fun to get to know people who are at the top of their fields. 

The biggest challenge of my job is the schedule. There are certain weeks of a case that are always much busier than others. One week, I may need to work late nights and over the weekend to get everything done. Other weeks, there may not be much to do. This up-and-down schedule can be difficult to adjust to and can be particularly grueling during longer stretches of busy weeks. Fortunately, for the most part, we can predict when the case will be super busy and when it will calm down, so I at least know when the busy times are coming. But there are occasional “fire drills” where we will receive a surprise motion from the party on the other side that will require me to cancel plans to get everything done.

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