In the spring of 2012 I graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a degree in Bioengineering. Following graduation I began working at Cardinal Health, which is a medical manufacturing and distribution company. From July of 2012 to June of 2013 I worked as an engineer in R&D designing various medical products such as suction canisters, durable medical equipment, and monitoring devices. In June of 2013 I moved over to Cardinal Health’s Intellectual Property department and focused primarily in patent law. The majority of my work involved working with the marketing, R&D, and the legal teams to ensure products we were planning to launch were clear of competitor patents. However, I was also tasked to build patent portfolios of competitor products, meet with the R&D team to create product design arounds, and assist the IP team in prosecuting patent applications. Prior to my work at Cardinal I hadn’t the faintest idea of patents and their importance in developing technology. But by August of 2013, I was completely hooked. Thus, I decided to begin the process of applying to law school.
Where do you work?
Tiffany Gehrke is an associate attorney at Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP. She secures and protects intellectual property rights on behalf of clients, focusing her practice on patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
Student Spotlight: Kara Smith
Next fall I start my final year at Loyola and can sincerely say that attending Loyola has been the best decision I’ve ever made. For one, the student body here is incredible and caring – not cut-throat or insanely competitive. On top of that, the professors, deans and career services staff go above and beyond to help students make the most of their time here and work towards securing their dream job.