Fish & Richardson
About Company
Why Fish?
The world’s most visionary innovators rely on us to protect their intellectual property because of our success in matters across the full IP life cycle. Clients of all sizes and across all industries hire Fish & Richardson to obtain and protect their IP, allowing them to achieve their strategic goals through licensing, acquisition, and enforcement. Our legal and technical knowledge, long history of success, and global reach make Fish the go-to firm for the world’s most complex IP cases.
Established in 1878, and now with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists in the U.S. and Europe, our success is rooted in our creative and inclusive culture, which values the diversity of people, experiences and perspectives.
Our Culture
Our tech-savvy teams are composed of exceptional individuals who bring their intelligence, curiosity, and confidence to each matter. We owe our success to our people, a diverse and creative group, with strong science and technical backgrounds and astute legal minds. Our teams understand clients’ technologies and mirror their innovative drive.
We prioritize a culture that promotes well-being. Attorneys and technology specialists enjoy excellent health and wellness benefits, work in a diverse and inclusive culture, and have support for pro bono work. Being part of a collaborative firm that appreciates your contributions, presents interesting work, facilitates opportunities to give back, and encourages good mental and physical health promotes a rewarding practice and satisfying life outside the firm.
We embrace a hybrid work environment and recognize the many benefits of remote working as well as the value of coming together in person for collaboration, mentorship, and professional development. As we adapted to a hybrid environment, we shifted how we approach work and how we nurture our culture to ensure its success. That is demonstrated in our commitment to providing valuable training and professional development. We invest in in-person training, including our cross-office multiday training immersion courses focused on practical skill development, because it is critically important for coaching and for developing cohesion. We also prioritized building an inclusive culture through active affinity groups, office social gatherings, volunteer opportunities, and guest speakers and trainings.
Diversity and Inclusion
As a firm that serves the world’s greatest visionaries, we know that creativity and innovation almost inevitably are the result of seeing the world from multiple different perspectives. Having a diverse team enhances the quality of legal services we provide to our clients, sustains our standing as a premier IP law firm, and strengthens the fabric of our firm.
To ensure steady progress, our diversity strategic plan outlines goals, methods to achieve them, and ways to measure success. Our initiatives are designed to increase the diversity of our talent and build on our inclusive culture to gain new insights, develop better decision-making, and create positive outcomes for our clients. Helping develop an inclusive community inside and outside of the firm enables people to show up as their whole selves and hold space for others doing the same.
Professional Development
Fish offers excellent training and development resources geared to various learning styles, helping you to learn and grow as the law evolves. We offer interactive programs, multiday immersion training courses, and practical skill development.
Some of the best training we offer our attorneys and technology specialists is not built into a course but happens day-to-day in each and every interaction among our staff. Our group leader system ensures that each associate and technology specialist gets a variety of work opportunities, formal feedback through the firm’s semi-annual review process, and a local mentor in their practice group.
Fish invests heavily in continuous education because training benefits both teacher and student, and the shared experience facilitates camaraderie and respect between both.
Pro Bono
Providing pro bono legal services is a privilege and responsibility that Fish attorneys take seriously. The firm is dedicated to encouraging and supporting attorneys who participate in pro bono work that meets some of this staggering need.
Fish is acutely aware that the lack of access to justice is a crisis. The firm therefore encourages attorneys to take on pro bono matters as a routine element of their practice and supports this work in a number of ways. Through its generous pro bono policy, the firm gives billable credit to attorneys for up to 200 hours of pro bono work each year. Additionally, each pro bono project is managed by the firm’s pro bono team and is supervised by a principal-level attorney.
With support from the firm, in the 2021-2022 billable year, Fish attorneys and professional staff devoted over 20,000 pro bono hours to individuals, families, and non-profit organizations in need of legal assistance in areas such as immigration, racial justice, housing, domestic violence, and children’s advocacy.