Continuing Legal Education

Lifelong learning is an attorney's ethical obligation and Fish makes it easy

Fish & Richardson offers excellent training and development resources geared to various learning styles, helping you to learn and grow as the law evolves.

One of the most exciting—and challenging—aspects of legal practice is the ever-evolving nature of law. Fish advises clients around the world on a myriad of intellectual property matters, making continuing legal education (CLE) essential, as well as required by many jurisdictions.

To accommodate different learning styles and schedules, we offer interactive programs, multiday immersion training courses, and practical skill development. Our "Fish University" delivers training through various electronic and online technologies. Two or three times per month, we host webinars on a variety of technical and legal topics for attorneys and clients. See Upcoming Events to learn what is coming up.

These offerings allow Fish attorneys — whether as students or teachers — to broaden their knowledge, hone their skills, and fulfill CLE requirements.

Some examples of our innovative training include:

  • Our patent practice hosts Patent Lab, an interactive, 2.5-day intensive training program that covers interviewing inventors and preparing patent applications, drafting claims, and responding to office actions. The program is entirely interactive with hands-on exercises. Fish principals prepare the exercises and provide detailed feedback.
  • Our litigation training programs use the time-tested NITA learning-by-doing method. Fish principals serve as faculty to enhance instruction and focus directly on our unique client needs.

Some of the best training we offer our attorneys is not built into a course but happens day-to-day in each and every interaction among our staff:

  • Each year we host "Fish-FYI," a firm-wide orientation program to acquaint junior legal staff with firm leadership and technology specialists.
  • 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.