u/Frankgman

Looking for honest perspective.

Background: ~6 years as a patent prosecution paralegal (US & Foreign) — AmLaw 100 and reputable IP boutiques. New York metro area.

I've been job searching about 5 months. Salary expectations have come way down. I get some interviews but little converting, and the postings just aren't there.

Theories I'm kicking around:

• Clients are trimming IP budgets, so firms are slowing or freezing prosecution hires.
• The "AI efficiency tools" firms keep buying are shrinking the prosecution headcount they think they need.
• The candidate pool is unusually deep right now — fewer seats, stronger competition.

Bigger question: pivoting to patent litigation. If prosecution work/market is in long-term contraction, I'd rather pivot now than later. I'd take a real pay cut to train into patent litigation — even considered free/reduced work, but rent is rent, so that's a hail mary, not a plan.

My questions for anyone who's done it:

If you moved from prosecution (or any practice area) into litigation as a non-attorney, how did you actually pull it off? A staffing/contract-to-hire route?

Asks:

Leads in NYC metro (prosecution or litigation) — DMs welcome.

You konw someone hiring or open to training someone in Patent Litigation at a reduced rate, let's talk.

Honest feedback, including the hard kind. If the pivot is unrealistic without a specific credential or step, I'd rather hear it.

Looking for honest perspective.

Background: nearly 6 years as a patent prosecution paralegal — AmLaw 100 plus reputable IP boutiques. US prosecution, foreign filing, PCT. New York metro area.

I've been searching for about 5 months now. Salary expectations have come way down. Some interviews, little converting, and a lot of the postings I'd normally expect just aren't there.

Theories I'm kicking around:

Clients are trimming IP budgets, so firms are slowing or freezing prosecution hires.

The "AI efficiency tools" firms keep buying are shrinking the prosecution headcount they think they need.

The candidate pool is unusually deep right now — fewer seats, stronger competition.

Bigger question: pivoting to patent litigation. If prosecution work is in long-term contraction, I'd rather pivot now than later. I'd take a real pay cut to train into litigation — even considered free or reduced work, but rent is rent, so that's a hail mary, not a plan.

Asks:

Leads (prosecution or litigation) in NYC metro — DMs welcome.

If you've made the prosecution → litigation pivot (for non attorney folk), how'd you pull it off?

Hiring or willing to train someone at a reduced rate? Let's talk.

Open to honest feedback, including the hard kind. Thanks.

PS — on search strategy, since I'm trying to be thorough:

Job boards are tapped (I check every day). I've been using the Harrity Top Patent Filers report for 2026 and working my way down — firms growing their US prosecution volume are going to see more office actions and more formalities, IDS, NOAs, etc., i.e., they are going to need more help. I check each firm's careers page, and if nothing's listed, I find an HR or careers email and send a cold cover letter and resume.

For smaller boutiques I go further. I built a pipeline using the USPTO ODP API that pulls a practitioner's full portfolio back to 2001 and feeds a dashboard I made tracking non-final OAs, final OAs, restriction requirements, notices of allowance, and pre-examination applications still in queue. From there I spot OAs that mailed same-day, draft the non-final OA shell and client reporting email, and send those alongside my application.

One example — a practitioner at a small boutique that focuses on German applicants. I pulled his portfolio and flagged a Restriction Requirement the USPTO mailed on May 13 in a 371 application. The International Search Report or the references therein hadn't been cited in an IDS, and neither had a DE office action that cited additional references. (Could've been an intentional call on the firm's part — I don't know.) I drafted the IDS covering the ISR and the DE references, drafted a shell response to the RR plus a client reporting email, and sent the whole package over — flagging that since an RR isn't an action on the merits, we can submit the IDS without cert/fees.

I know this reads as a little unhinged. I genuinely don't know what else to try, apart from making my way down the list and checking job boards. The Harrity list is about 474 firms. I'm 80-ish deep, and I'm starting to worry.