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IU McKinney students who seek to focus their legal studies and take aim at their career path after law school can choose to pursue a graduate certificate. Students particularly focus upon intellectual property law may elect to pursue the IP Graduate Certificate. Here are a couple of students who are doing just that.

Josh DeAmicis is a 3L at IU McKinney, where he is pursuing the Intellectual Property Law Graduate Certificate. The Indianapolis native spent some time working in the engineering, medical, and legal fields after completing his undergraduate education.  DeAmicis graduated with a major in chemistry/biochemistry from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and wanted to determine precisely what he wanted to pursue as a career path.

At IU McKinney, DeAmicis has found his niche, and discovered a love of teaching. He’s been able to work as a teaching assistant and tutor other law students and has worked as a research assistant to Professor Xuan-Thao Nguyen. He’s also been a big part of the staff of the Indiana Law Review since his 2L year, when he was a Note Candidate, and was elected to the board as an executive articles editor during his 3L year.

“From a professional point of view, I couldn’t imagine a school better situated near prospective employers and job opportunities,” DeAmicis said.

DeAmicis has taken advantage of many of the experiential learning opportunities the law school has to offer while a student at IU McKinney. He served as an extern and clerk for Judge Sarah Evans Barker in the U.S. District Court. He served there through March 2020 and was able to see the courts adapt as the coronavirus pandemic grew in scope. He also is part of the Civil Practice Clinic at IU McKinney for the Fall 2020 semester.

DeAmicis has clerked for the law firm Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, where he has spent two summers working in the patent litigation department. His goal after completing law school is to begin his legal career there as an associate in the patent litigation department. He’d also enjoy teaching as an adjunct professor at IU McKinney.

DeAmicis’ enthusiasm for IP law is infectious. He’d like to see more law students, particularly those who do not have a science background, pursue this area of law. He believes many students don’t give IP law a chance because they mistakenly believe they need a hard science background, fear the subject matter will be mundane, or fail to see the impact IP law has on us all. “But the facts are, first, that you can be extremely successful in the IP field without such a background, and as with any subset of the law, IP could use some of these new and unique perspectives,” DeAmicis said. “Second, unlike many portions of the law, IP is present literally everywhere: there is not a day where you can escape its reach and importance. And finally, IP is simply the law of innovation. It’s the law the pushes inventors to create the products that everyone uses, and that allows individuals with a new and great idea to protect and share it. I say all this simply in the hopes that more people will come into the IP fold!”

Malissa Magiera is a dual-degree student, pursuing a master’s degree in biology at IUPUI’s School of Science, and a juris doctor at IU McKinney, where she also is pursing the Intellectual Property Law Graduate Certificate. Magiera won the 2020 Papke Prize for Best Student Note in the Indiana Law Review. She became interested in the subject she wrote about during her 1L year, when she was working as an extern at Eli Lilly and Co.

Magiera’s mentor at Lilly gave her what she describes as a crash course in patent law, and one area of particular discussion concerned evergreening. Magiera’s prize-winning note, “Leaving the Evergreening Problem to the Patent Experts – The USPTO, the PTAB, and the Federal Circuit,” concerns the “loophole” in patent law that pharmaceutical companies can use to extend their exclusivity on a drug, leading to higher drug prices. “In my note, I examine this issue and conclude that the legislature should not be the body of law to address the issue, but instead the judicial and executive branches should – specifically the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.”

Magiera is from Highland, Indiana, and studied biology and neuroscience, and took a minor in chemistry, as an undergraduate student. She was headed to medical school but realized during her senior year that path wasn’t for her. Her roommate was in her 3L year at IU McKinney, and Magiera became intrigued by the notion of going to law school. She spent the summer before entering law school working at the NCAA in the compliance branch.

Fast-forward a bit: Magiera passed the patent bar in July 2019, which allowed her to work at Dentons Bingham Greenebaum in Indianapolis during the academic year as a patent agent. She spent Summer 2020 as a summer associate at the Washington D.C. firm Rothwell Figg IP Professionals. Magiera accepted an offer to work there after graduation in May 2021.

In addition to working as a patent attorney, perhaps in pharmaceutical litigation, Magiera aspires to work on as many pro bono projects as she can, she said. “Rothwell Figg allowed me to work on multiple pro bono projects during my summer there, and it really helped me realize how much I like giving back,” Magiera said.