How do I move jobs as a patent/trade mark attorney now?

Covid-19 and the Intellectual Property Sector 7th April 2020.

At the beginning of March Fellows and Associates still had a wide array of active vacancies we were recruiting for within the UK IP profession. There was perhaps a sense of foreboding but recruitment projects continued regardless. All of that changed once the schools closed and the lockdown commenced. As of now, most UK firms of patent and trade mark attorneys I have spoken to have put recruitment on hold.

It is even worse within industry, where we have seen redundancies and attorneys being put on furlough. My concern is that these positions will eventually be made redundant, the work that was in house simply outsourced to private practices. This could in turn have a more positive impact for firms as they gain new work they previously did not have access to but this will be a long term outcome and has little to no bearing on current circumstances.

So what on earth do you do? If you see yourself wanting a new job soon, or worse, needing one, how can you possibly handle the current circumstances? I have a few suggestions which hopefully might help just a little.

1) You may have to accept the current situation. If your job is okay but not outstanding then that is likely a great position to be in at present. Opportunities to move will be limited and it is much better to move when there is more variety available.

2) Accepting the situation doesn’t mean doing nothing. In fact now is an excellent time to plan. Speak to me (or grudgingly another recruiter, no don’t do that) and we can plan what we will do as market conditions change. What would you be looking for? Who would you like to work for? What type of work would you like to do? What long term career potential might there be? Discussing this now has the additional advantage that if a firm un-paused recruitment earlier than others we might be in a position to pounce and give you a better shot at getting what you want.

3) If you don’t currently have a job within IP and want one, the only real option is to wait. If you are trying to enter the profession for the first time then apply for training positions as usual but be aware that the odds of getting in will be even longer than is the norm and you should start thinking about contingencies now (i.e. paralegal work; working for a service provider; or in patent formalities, etc.). If you are an attorney already – part or fully qualified – but find yourself out of work, if you can hang on, then try to. Proactively approaching numerous firms or companies on speculative basis at the moment is highly unlikely to work and may well make it more difficult to do so again as/when the market picks up. If you see positions that are being newly advertised (i.e. not pre-lockdown positions that are technically active but on hold) then apply to them of course, but otherwise wait until you do.

4) Be prepared to compromise. You may need to improve your current position by moving jobs but that can take many forms. You will really need to decide what is important and what is not e.g. do you really need the additional salary you are holding out for if the work life balance is better? Can you cope with a work mix not being quite as dynamic as you hoped for? There will be a paradigm shift for at least the next few months and frankly much more compromise will likely be required than last year when the market was booming.

5) If possible try to avoid panic. Don’t speak to lots of recruiters, don’t apply to any role you see, be methodical, think through where you should compromise and where you shouldn’t and how much time you have to find a position.

6) Don’t give up hope. I’m old! I remember the dot com bubble bursting; the economic impact of 9/11 and the depression of 2008/9. This period may well have an impact on your career, plans will be postponed, you will not advance as quickly as you had hoped or you could lose a job entirely. But, the IP sector is very resilient. The recovery from the economic crash in 2008 was relatively quick but the initial impact was far less than in many other sectors. I remember attorneys who were made redundant at the height of the crash who are now Partners, their previous firms certainly acting far too hastily in a crisis. I do think the IP profession learnt from that in the UK and is actually much better prepared to weather this storm than would have been the case a few years ago.

7) If you are in position within a firm where you make the hiring decisions and are reading this, then remember that recessions create opportunities from a recruitment perspective. There will be candidates that you could have access to now, that you would not have had a few months ago. And first movers could have a real advantage, if you can act quickly, recruit ahead of your competitors you could put your firm in a real position of strength as work picks up again. I certainly saw this happen after the 2008 crash. A few of our clients recruited many of the best people on the market at the time and grew their firm at the expense of their competitors who could not recruit for their roles in 2009/10 (even 2011) when work had increased. They had arguably left it too late. The fact the more proactive firms had recruited through an economic crisis had a tremendously positive PR benefit as well.

8) It’s not a total close down. We are still recruiting! I had a candidate on interview with a client (via Skype) earlier today. I can’t promise that I can help you right away but like everyone else I have a bit more time on my hands and I’m happy to have a chat. Perhaps this period of interregnum will provide for many of us, a time to assess and rethink. I’d be glad to help you with that process.

Pete Fellows, Director, Fellows and Associates.