Morrison Foerster Interview Questions
& Process

It was a pretty standard interview process. It started with a recruiter chat, then I talked to the hiring manager, then someone from the team, and finished with a senior leader. There was also an excel assessment involved. The whole thing took about a month.

First there was a screening interview. About a week later, I had to do this writing exercise where I had to provide a 1-page summary for two patents (US 6,033,857 and US 7,487,719). The summaries were supposed to be for an audience that's generally well-read and curious, but not super technical in that specific area. I also had to explain why the tech would be interesting to them, like something you'd see in Popular Science or the NYT Science section. Lastly, I interviewed with the team, which included a patent agent, attorneys, and a partner.

This is a lateral hire position. First, I interviewed with partners in the group. Then, I was called back to have conversations with three associates in the group. The partner conversations focused on the types of deals I worked on at my prior firm, the clients I had, and my main skill set. The conversations with associates were more casual and touched on culture topics.

It started with the typical recruiter call. Then, they asked me to put together a high-level PowerPoint presentation about myself, mixing personal and professional details, for the recruiting department's review. My presentation was good enough to move forward. Next, I met with two individuals from the Attorney Recruiting team. During the meeting, one of them kept checking her phone. She apologized, saying it was work-related, but it felt pretty rude and distracting, which was a new experience for me. I'm wondering how happy people are on that team based on the vibe I got from those two.