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Beyond Biglaw: Teaching The Basics

What litigator Gaston Kroub learned from teaching IP law to high schoolers.

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Beyond BiglawOver the course of my career, I have had the good fortune to do a fair amount of teaching. Whether it be giving an internal CLE at one of my prior Biglaw firms, co-hosting a webinar with one of my partners at my current firm, or just talking to fourth-graders about the Apple/Samsung patent case, each teaching experience has proven well worth the time invested.

Yes, it is hard to find time to actually prepare for a teaching performance, and the rewards are generally intangible ones. Sure, I have been able to wrangle some interesting trips to conferences in distant lands by accepting offers to speak, but the talk circuit does not really seem to have a honoraria budget for patent lawyers. I am not expecting that to change anytime soon. But if Goldman Sachs is willing, I am available for a lot less than Hillary.

Payment issues aside, my general thought is that lawyers have a civic obligation to teach whenever they have the opportunity. We are a society of laws, and lawyers are a Night’s Watch of sorts providing a bulwark against anarchy and chaos. So as long as the proposed teaching opportunity does not impact on family or client obligations, I am usually game.

Earlier this year, I was solicited to teach an elective survey course on intellectual property, though not as a fancy adjunct professor at a law school or university. Instead, my class was for a bunch of pretty ambitious sophomores and juniors at the high school I graduated from. Keep in mind, these students have a pretty serious workload already, with a full dual curriculum in English and Hebrew/Jewish subjects. Most of them are in multiple AP courses, as I was at their age, so adding on another elective, at the expense of already scarce free time, was a true sign of commitment on their part.

At this stage of my career, I am pretty comfortable with my ability to put together a CLE for a legal audience on a basic or advanced IP topic, without the need for much notice. Want to explore different approaches towards the timing of claim construction proceedings across multiple district courts? Give me some time to prepare a slide show and we can have a nice discussion about the topic. Putting together an entire survey course from scratch, however, was a completely different challenge. What I learned from the experience was that it is worthwhile to take an opportunity to teach the basics if that opportunity presents itself. In a way, teaching the students about the basics of IP had a rejuvenating effect in terms of my interest in my chosen field.

Of course, putting together a survey course of any kind, as opposed to a discussion regarding a discrete topic, requires a lot of thought. I anticipated that my students would be intelligent, highly motivated, and would only sign up for the course based on an interest in the material. On the other hand, I knew that they were overworked, stressed about their performance in school, and would have a limited attention span as a result. Plus, they were teenagers. With all that in mind I set out to develop a syllabus, with one overarching goal in mind: to make the time they invested in the course worthwhile.

At bottom, I really wanted them to walk away from the class with an appreciation for the pervasiveness and importance of IP rights in our economy, and how those rights have been impacted by globalization and other economic forces. Moreover, I wanted them to feel that they had acquired a literacy in terms of basic IP concepts, so that they further develop their awareness of IP issues, and perhaps one day engage with those issues in a more informed way. At the same time, I also wanted to give them a sense of how the legal system operates, and how it interacts with the executive branch of government to grant and uphold IP rights. Ambitious, I know. Especially since I also wanted them to realize that not all lawyers are ogres, and that a legal career can be rewarding if you find a practice area that excites and challenges you.

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All these lofty aims found themselves expressed in a comprehensive syllabus, full of points and subpoints for each proposed lesson. And then I held the first class — where I learned that teaching the basics is hard, and requires a lot of patience. It is not that the kids were slow learners, or had trouble in absorbing the material. The biggest issue was learning how to calibrate my presentation to their level of knowledge, and make the information relatable. Of course, this was probably some of the best practice for presenting arguments to judges and juries possible. (Furthering that skill alone is good reason for litigators to seek out teaching opportunities, especially to less sophisticated audiences.)

I also learned that we were never going to get through the entire syllabus — which was fine, because what was ultimately satisfying was watching the class start to really grasp the material, and familiarize themselves with both the concepts and lingo – even though they had no prior exposure of any rigor to IP law. For my part, I learned how important it was to tie abstract concepts to actual examples, while weaving in a war story or two to keep the class engaged. Additionally, it was obvious that soliciting questions from the class was the best way to know that we were on track, and that the information was sinking in.

Ultimately, I found the experience of teaching basics to high schoolers a rewarding experience. Even though we only met for a half-hour session during their Friday lunch hour, I think they were able to get a lot out of the class. In fact, the class performed very well on the final exam, which I think reflects more on their capacity for learning than my teaching ability. My pedagogical challenges aside, one thing is for sure. As much benefit as they got out of the class, there is no comparison to the benefits — intangible yet valuable — that I received from giving it. So if you ever find yourself with an opportunity to teach the basics to an audience, my suggestion is go for it. You might learn something worthwhile in the process.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome. If you are curious to see what my final exam looked like, just email me and I would be happy to send it over.

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Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

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