We are excited to spotlight Ihaab Syed (she/her), Judicial Law Clerk at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, in our monthly newsletter.

After spending her formative years in a Mississippi small town, Ihaab attended NYU on a Presidential Honors Scholarship, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Philosophy. Her first post-graduate job was as a paralegal for legal services clients with mental illness. Then, after working as an organizer on political campaigns, she helped found a new labor organization devoted to supporting electoral workers, serving as the union’s secretary as well as a bargaining agent, union representative, and liaison with legal counsel. These experiences motivated Ihaab to pursue a J.D. with a specialization in Public Interest Law & Policy from UCLA School of Law, which she received in 2019. During her studies, she was recognized for her contributions to the campus and wider community as an inaugural recipient of the U. Serve L.A. Student Award.

After graduating, Ihaab became an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Voting Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Her fellowship project focused on improving access for voters with disabilities through impact litigation, advocacy, and public education. Ihaab also co-led the ACLU’s 2020 nationwide Election Protection effort. To mobilize insights from this work, she co-authored a peer-reviewed article with colleagues from the ACLU and the National Disability Rights Network, published in the Election Law Journal: Designing Accessible Elections: Recommendations from Disability Voting Rights Advocates.

Currently, Ihaab is a law clerk for a federal district judge in Seattle. Since October 2022, she has served on the Ninth Circuit Workplace Environment Committee’s Law Clerk Subcommittee, helping advance initiatives to improve the experience of law clerks throughout the Circuit. She is a participant in MAMA Seattle’s Ladder Down leadership and business development program and has a budding interest in filmmaking. A documentary Ihaab co-directed, Bhaskar Chitrakar: Painting Kalighat Moderns, recently premiered at the Smithsonian Museum’s Mother Tongue Film Festival.

Questions and Answers

1.  As someone who serves on the Ninth Circuit Workplace Environment Committee’s Law Clerk Subcommittee, what advice would you give to young lawyers aspiring to become judicial clerks?

In this role, I’ve had the opportunity to work with clerks from all over the Ninth Circuit, across appellate, bankruptcy, and district courts. Everyone has had a unique path to getting here, and several of us are first-generation lawyers. Don’t count yourself out just because you don’t fit the imagined profile of a law clerk. Many judges are eager to hire people with litigation experience, a prior career, or other life circumstances that are outside the mold.

Law schools often encourage students to “bulk apply” to clerkships. However, I would recommend putting considerable thought and effort into a few select applications, making sure those applications are tailored to what each judge’s posting specifically requires. Focus on clearly articulating why you want to clerk and demonstrate why you would be a great fit for that specific judge’s chambers. In particular, the writing sample you choose (and how well it is introduced) can show that you are a serious candidate—even if you weren’t at the top of your class or on the law review—by showcasing your thoughtfulness and ability to independently perform the type of legal analysis that law clerks engage in daily.

2.  How can lawyers contribute to creating a more accessible and inclusive legal system?

Accessing legal support can be burdensome for potential clients from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly those who also have disabilities. Many Americans do not have lawyers in their network, and when they seek legal counsel they are likely facing some of the most challenging circumstances in their lives such as a family dispute, immigration consequences, criminal penalties, or financial crisis. A few key things you can do to make your services more available to a broad population include: (1) using plain, easy-to-understand language in retainer agreements and other communications to clients; (2) defaulting to using gender-neutral language until you know someone’s preferred pronouns and not assuming relationships (e.g., using the word “partner”); and (3) ensuring that your practice group’s website meets current accessibility standards. These are simple things that together we can work towards normalizing in our relatively exclusive profession.

Another valuable way I’ve found to gain understanding of the needs of my local community has been to volunteer on projects requiring interaction with people whose experiences differ from my own. My formal work with clients with disabilities began only after years of volunteering as a cooking class instructor at a New York City shelter, where I built deep relationships with many disabled residents.

One community need that lawyers can uniquely fill is providing representation for people of low- to moderate-means in civil cases. The Western District has a pro bono program which offers mentorship and co-counseling support to volunteer attorneys.

3. How can lawyers help make the legal profession more accessible and inclusive?

There are many barriers to success in the legal profession for first-generation lawyers, especially those without close family members with advanced degrees or from primarily non-English language backgrounds. Consider your law office’s recruitment process and how you can help create better pipelines for underrepresented applicants to enter and succeed in the profession. If you can devote time and energy into providing extra writing support (e.g., multiple rounds of redline edits and detailed oral feedback), you may be able to hire and provide coaching to an aspiring intern or associate with a less-polished application or lower grades who has the zeal to learn and do good work.

Beyond the hiring process, each of us can commit to regularly providing mentorship to our junior peers by signaling our willingness to provide advice and support and making ourselves available when they reach out. As the beneficiary of this type of mentorship myself, I am keenly aware of how this understated way of distributing the soft skills of our profession that aren’t taught in law school is critical to building a rewarding career in the law. Each of us can be changemakers within our own spheres of influence: in our workplaces and within our social and professional networks. And none of us succeed in this profession on our own.

Many thanks to Valerie Chelobitchenko for this invitation to share a little bit about my journey and to the King County Chapter of Washington Women Lawyers for being a valuable resource for lawyers in our community.

We are excited to spotlight Makiko Coffland, Member at Christensen O'Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC, in our in our King County Washington Women Lawyers May newsletter.

Makiko represents businesses and individuals in all areas of intellectual property (IP) law, including trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret matters. She is a passionate advocate for business owners and individuals and assists clients to protect their valuable business assets tied to intellectual property. She helps clients with IP-related transactions and litigations, including trademark clearance and protection, trademark oppositions and cancellations, negotiation and handling disputes in trademarks and copyrights, domain disputes, licensing, due diligence, trade secret litigations, and antitrust litigations.

Before becoming an attorney, Makiko studied marine biology and molecular biology at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field. She also worked as a researcher in the fields of environmental engineering and microbiology and as an invention analyst for patent examination at the Japan Patent Office. Through these experiences she became passionate about intellectual property and chose a path to study intellectual property law in the United States. With English as a second language, Makiko worked hard to overcome the language barrier to achieve her goal of becoming an attorney, graduating from the University of Idaho College of Law with her J.D. degree in 2010.

Makiko's practice is strengthened by her technology background and industry experience. She began her legal career as a patent attorney, representing clients in a variety of fields and industries. Her prior experience in the life sciences has proven useful when working with brand owners in the pharmaceutical industry, where she assists with the selection, clearance, and protection of their brands in this highly regulated industry. With her unique international background, she easily collaborates with clients around the world.

Makiko is an avid volunteer with local communities and legal organizations. She has volunteered at the King County Bar Association Neighborhood Legal Clinic to assist individuals who need legal support and is a member of the Washington State Bar Association’s International Practice Section and Intellectual Property Section. She has been a board member of the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington since 2018, and served as chair of the events committee for two terms, between 2020-2023, to produce events for the Japanese community in the State of Washington. She currently serves as secretary of the International Trademark Law & Practice Committee of the Intellectual Property Owners Association.

Questions and Answers

1. What challenges did you face in your career as an IP attorney and how did you manage to overcome them?

Intellectual property refers to so many different types of creations, including inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, names, symbols, and more, and intellectual property laws cover large areas of law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. It is already challenging to practice this complex law associated with a wide array of subject matters, and my background in a different culture and language has added some more challenges for me in this demanding area of law. Perseverance, persistence, and diligence helped me to navigate through these challenging times, and I was also fortunate to have amazing mentors and supervisors who believed in me and helped guide me through my career. When I started my legal career, I had some doubts, to be honest, but through the experience, I came to understand that bringing one’s culture, language, and background to the practice of IP law contributes to the depth of the legal advice I can provide and adds value to those clients who also come from a diverse background. I am so grateful to those mentors and supervisors who recognized my abilities and encouraged me to pursue my career in intellectual property law.

What advice would you give to attorneys who would like to begin an IP law career without technical degrees and background?

I would say that there is a space for anyone interested in IP law. It is true that the majority of IP law issues involve technical backgrounds, and that the majority of IP lawyers are patent attorneys; however, careers in “soft IP” – such as trademarks and copyrights - exist for those without technical degrees and backgrounds. In some cases, those without technical backgrounds have strong business acumen, which is also an important skillset for IP attorneys. Additionally, patent litigation does not require a technical background or degree to practice; it is not a surprise to find many great litigators practicing this field without technical degrees.

Can you provide any thoughts on the new rule: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) amended its rules of practice as it created a new design patent practitioner designation, to represent others before the USPTO as either a “design patent attorney” or “design patent agent.” A new separate design patent practitioner bar, available to an additional set of degrees, will allow admitted design patent practitioners to practice only in design patent proceedings. This amendment took effect on January 2, 2024.

Design patents protect an aesthetic feature of an article, including shapes and configurations. Design patent practitioners are still required to have a bachelor's, master's, or Doctor of Philosophy degree to take the design patent practitioner bar, but this change will definitely create more opportunities for people in industry or product design, architecture, graphic design, or for those with general art backgrounds, to pursue their career in patent law. It is a welcoming change that the US Patent and Trademark Office has made to align with other countries’ IP offices.