sthu11182

Last time I heard (like 3 years ago), the acceptance rate was 80%. The completion rate is much lower.

The reality is that you get multiple bites at the apple. You challenge at trial and in an IPR. Lose both, challenge with an EPR and appeal the trial. IPRs were initially created to simplify trial and cost, but once the estoppel provisions were determined not to have much teeth, it just became something you did because there was no downside.

Regarding law school, I would point out that law grad salaries are bi-modal. If you get in big law, you would start at $210k, if not you will start at a lot less. Presumably, with your background, your easiest pathway to big law is patent litigation, but I would say there is still a lot bias favoring EE degrees over CS, but less so than in the past (as I recall from interviewing a long time ago that was true, but at my firm, I think its less of issue, but your experience may vary).

Law school is expensive and I don't think there is a cheap option in the bay area (even the state school is expensive but in other locations, it can be cheaper), but they do give out scholarships.

I wouldn't choose law school unless you think you could do well in the actual legal career environment. I don't know what you mean by "good contacts for law school," but if that means you know people in the field, I would suggest talking to them about it. Get as much information you can get.

Any worries that law is not going to be a viable career with AI seems farfetched by me, particularly in litigation.

I was an engineer and then I went to law school. There were tons of older students in law school looking to change their careers, from housewives to Ph.D. grads. In intellectual property, it is not unusual to find lawyers whose prior careers was an engineer or scientist for many years. I've seen a few who graduated law school in the mid-to-late thirties, early forties and still go to big law, some eventually becoming partners.

I wouldn't go to law school unless you really want to do it, but the point is there are plenty of people out there looking to change their careers all the time. Some are more successful than others in achieving it (due to luck or other reasons), but it is not as uncommon as you may think it is. It's never too late. Good luck.

I've really enjoyed the Math Sorcerer's overview of various math books. Such a breath of topics and levels.

I also worked as a civilian for the Navy as an EE (b.s.). I think my pay was ~50k (in the mid 2000s). I don't know about the national labs, but my experience working for the navy was that funding was a fight, especially everything being siphoned off for the Afghanistan war. The equipment was pretty up to date (the computers were not the latest, but decent), the furniture was a mismatch collection of liquated stuff, lab reports were published to a confidential library, and we were on flex time, which made the hours great.

beat me to posting that. I do agree its a great visualization.

I agree on Westsider. However, I always liked the Strand for its collection of history, science, and math books. While Strand can be crowded and touristy, it still has a good collection of books.

If he was younger, I would have recommended scratch. I recommended that to my then 11-year old cousin and he is now an engineering undergrad student.

At your son's age, there are plenty of how to program python courses using udemy and the like that show to build progressively harder apps for a complete beginner. From there, he could probably try to do one of those google certificate courses on android development or the like.

I remember having to check out BASIC programming books from the library as a kid to learn. These days, people have made fortunes on creating videos on how to program.

I also left engineering for law. Money was a factor when I applied, but also I did not like being pigeon holed in my engineering career. I do patent litigation, so I get to see discovery on the whole system as opposed to portions of it for a variety of technologies (i.e., network security, semiconductors, mechanical devices). I only had about 2 years of engineering experience (working in defense industry), but found the career boring and the pay low (~60k starting vs $160k starting in big law (which is now $205k starting)). Granted, I do think if I went to silicon valley when I graduated, I may have found a better position at a start-up environment. After 10 years of patent litigation, I do find it boring, but at least I am paid well comparatively to my SV engineering friends.