A Career Option for Chemists: Attorneys with Chemistry Backgrounds
Mark D. Weiss
IN CHEMISTRY Summer 1992
(Reproduced with Permission.)
Historically it is not unusual for chemistry graduates to drift into careers
other than those centered on the laboratory. Several previous issues of
Today's Chemist--now titled Today's Chemist at Work have described
alternative career options for chemists, and one of the most interesting--
although not obvious--choices is in the practice of law, especially patent
law. This article will demonstrate interesting and useful parallels as well
as important differences between the two professions. The increasing tangle
of govemment regulations has created many opportunities for attomeys who
have chemical backgrounds, and most of the chemist-attorneys we interviewed
still use their knowledge of chemistry.
Brian Wamsley has a master's degree in chemistry from DePauw University
and industrial experience. He has been a manager and chief chemist for an
environmental consulting laboratory near Princeton, NJ, and has worked in
research and development at Sandoz, Inc., and analytical development at
Lederle Labordtories.
"Law school was in the back of my mind for a while," says Wamsley.
"I had a basic desire to get ahead and have a better career than what
I had as a bench chemist with a master's degree. So, after looking at the
opportunities and what was available, getting a Ph.D. in an evening program
looked very remote. I decided that law school was the most efficient way
to advance professionally." After graduating from Pace University Law
School in 1986, he joined a law firm in Newark and is working on a variety
of cases, including product liability.
Wamsley helieves that the thought processes. the logic, and the reasoning
in chemistry and law are similar, but he feels that there are some basic
differences. "Chemistry is based on theories, details and facts that
were all discovered or ascertained through research.'' In his opinion, a
law career emphasizes more social policy and legal precedent.
Even if they have Ph.D.s and industrial experience, some chemists feel the
need to change course. In eight of his 10 years at UOP, Inc.. Frank Molinaro
was involved in research and development of catalysts for automotive catalytic
converters. He says. however that it didn't seem to be exactly what I wanted.
I felt I wanted to expand the potentials of the things that I could do,
and [I] started considering . . . business or law . . . [I] decided that
patent law would allow me to build on and use my technical hackground."
Molinaro is in his third year at DePaul University School of Law and is
currently a patent agent at UOP.
I don't feel I left [chemistry] behind" he says. Actually. . . I'm
having to learn more chemistry . . . in order to write a good patent applica
tion. Since I've heen in the patent department, I've covered areas that
I knew very little about before." In his role at UOP Molinaro also
works closely with inventors. We're encouraged to attend research meetings
and provide input as to whether an idea is on first showing, a patentable
invention. Molinaro believes that his chemical and technical education taught
him the logical and deductive thinking that will be vital to him in his
future law career.
Although she reached the level of senior chemist, Dolores T. Kenney decided
to become a patent lawver when the personal care division of Gillette Company
(formerly Toni) moved from Chicago. Kenney was a cosmetic chemist with Gillette
for 18 years and was also a member of an in-house consulting group that
worked with the patent department.
With her husband. Kenney formed Ken-Quest, Ltd., a consumer products consulting
firm; she began writing a monthly patent column for a journal that
serves the cosmetic, perfume, and fragrance industry. Gradually she became
interested in patent law and saw it as a way to use her technical background.
Ten years later she entered law school and obtained her degree in 1984.
She now practices patent law in Chicago.
In descrihing her current work with inventors, Kenney claims that 'The attorney
is often the one who develops the invention to the fullest."
She finds her chemistry experience invaluable. "Having had the industrial
background and having worked independently with consumer products as a consultant,
I think I can understand the client's problem more clearly. If the client
just has a germ of an idea . . . not totally refined, you may . . . flesh
it out.'' She feels that her industrial experience allows her to assess
the importance of an invention or concept, refine it, and write a patent
application that broadens the patent's coverage.
A talent for writing started E. Janet Berry on her career in patent law.
' I guess you could say I sort of stumbled into it," she recalls. After
she received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Purdue University in 1946.
Berry started working as a patent agent with American Cyanamid in New Jersey.
For more than two years she wrote patent disclosures and worked with patent
attorneys to transfer intormation from the research lab to the patent department.
'I met some people from the patent department who thought that I was ahle
to write scientific material rather well, and they suggested that I might
want to go into patent law." says Berry. She attended New York University
Law School at night received her degree while working as a patent agent,
and is now the principal of her own law firm in New York City.
Corporate health, safety, and environmental regulatory work started Karen
Douglas thinking about law school. She earned her Ph.D. in physical chemistry
at the University of Georgia. and her path to the legal profession "sort
of came from where my [industrial] career path went. I very much enjoyed
doing regulatory work for the chemical industry and . . . I thought . .
. that I could do a better job if I understood more about the regulatory
process and the legal underpinnings for it."
Douglas's industrial experience includes research and development work in
cosmetics and toiletries and in development of material safety data sheets
for a manufacturer and supplier of metalworking fluids for the auto industry.
She also worked on the development of environmental health and safety programs
for manufacturing plants in the United States and England. She eamed a law
degree in 1985 and currently practices in Chicago. Douglas feels that the
experience gained by going through a chemistry Ph.D. program is a great
help to her even now. "I think defending your thesis or your research
in front of an examining committee is similar to arguing your position in
court."
In some respect, Diane Maule's professional situation is similar. She feels
that combining law with chemistry is beneficial. Because of "the EPA
and environmental laws that are always changing, California's Proposition
65 - the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act--and cases that might
be coming into litigation, I thought that chemistry and law might fit together
and be a nice combination. Maule is chief chemist with Associated Plating
in Santa Fe Springs, CA, and she oversees chemical and plating operations
as well as water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities. In addition,
she handles SARA Title III community and worker right-to-know issues, chemical
inventory, and other EPA reporting requirements. As a consultant, she is
an advisor for these issues, although the volume of her consulting work
has kept her from actually beginning law school.
A reflection of changing times, Emma Verdicke's path to her legal career
started long after she received a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from Columbia
University. She postponed her career to raise a family, and when she was
ready to reenter the work force, she found that job opportunities for nuclear
chemists were scarce--especially for one who had been out of the market
for quite a while.
After some retraining in environmental chemistry, Verdicke took a position
with the agricultural economics department at the University of Connecticut,
where she worked on environmental issues. Three years later she joined Olin
Corporation as an environmental affairs specialist, which meant that she
worked a great deal with lawyers who encouraged her to become a lawyer herself.
Verdicke graduated from Pace University Law School in 1987 and joined a
law firm as a scientist/associate attomey studying the effect that scientific
issues related to environmental law have on the legal responsibilities of
the firm's clients.
"A chemistry or technical background is definitely an asset to an environmental
lawyer, Verdicke claims. "It helps you understand what the issues are--how
chemicals behave now, in five years, in 10 years, in 20 years; how they
migrate; how they interact with their surroundings and so forth."
She agrees with the other chemist-attorneys interviewed that the one-to
one relationship between an attomey and a client enables them to have more
control within their jobs than they had as chemists in industry. According
to Verdicke, there is never a dull moment. "Each case and each situation
[are] different. Unlike the corporate world, you don't have to spend an
awful lot of time selling projects to various levels of management ....
The client comes to you because y ou can help him."
In recognizing the differences between chemistry and the law, M. Andrea
Ryan, a chemist with more than 10 years of industrial experience, feels
that these differences may present difficulties during the transition between
careers. 'Science was concrete and relatively easy to manage. You knew what
you had to do to work, study, and understand. I found law school to be much
less concrete and more changeable and more difficult to grasp than science."
For her, this made the first year of law school a little harder. In addition
to the technical knowledge, however, "The science background gives
you an ability to organize and be analytical in approaching problems."
Ryan is now a counsel at a New York City law firm.
Susan Smith, a second-year law student at Rutgers and a chemist/technical
writer in the specifications office at Lederle Laboratories, quickly recognized
the difference between chemistry and the law. "I [now] understand the
difference between being precise legally and being precise chemically,"
.she says. "In law, the principles have different shades of meaning,
whereas in science, they are more precise. Although the thought processes
are the same . . . in law the rules are less definite and there is more
room for interpretation . " Each of the chemist-attomeys interviewed
is enthusiastic about the many professional and employment opportunities
and attractive flexibility within their law careers. Karen Douglas, for
instance, is excited about the challenge and reward of working in the area
of environmental insurance coverage litigation; Frank Molinaro feels there
is generally great opportunity for career development and financial reward.
Law careers also frequently offer travel or relocation possibilities.
Almost everyone agreed that the most challenging areas of law for chemists
are those of patent law, toxic torts, and environmental law. Given the explosion
of biotechnology, the complexity of patents, and environmental concems,
attomeys trained in chemistry can be of great assistance to chemical companies.
the government, and the world in which we live.
Mark D. Weiss is a medical writer for a pharmaceutical company.
He has bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry and a master's degree
in specialized joumalism.
Reprinted from Today's Chemist with permission from Mark D. Weiss.
1989. 2 (5), pp 19-22. Copyright 1989, Mark D. Weiss.