What she does: Foster is a third-year law student at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and a summer associate in the patent practice of in the law firm Dentons Bingham Greenebaum. She studies intellectual property law – patents, trademarks and copyright. Patents protect inventors from having others make money off of their ideas. In order to sit for the bar exam in patent law, candidates must have a science or engineering background.
Why patent law: As a chemical engineering major at the Swanson School of Engineering, she went on plant tours. “I realized I didn’t want to work in a plant all of my life. I like science and engineering, but across patent law,” which would allow her to put her technical background to use but enjoy an office environment. As a bonus, she discovered patent attorneys are in high demand not only with law firms, but also research universities and corporations that have their own in-house legal teams to secure patents for discoveries, inventions and novel processes. “I’m really looking forward to being in a firm when the first patent that I have drafted gets granted,” she said. “I think that will be very rewarding.”
Her greatest challenge: “There are not a lot of women in the intellectual property field,” she said, explaining that the gender breakdown mirrors that of engineering. In large law firms, new attorneys are expected to produce a certain number of billable hours per year, which can be more difficult to keep that expectation and balance family life, she said.
Her passion projects: In her first summer at a law firm in Lexington, she worked on some pro bono projects. “It was nice being able to use my ability with the law to give people an answer to the property question that they had,” she said. “There are all sorts of questions that people need to have answered that you can’t just Google.”
In her free time, she pursues something that she did at Pitt-Bradford as well, playing hockey. “It’s a total getaway with people from all walks of life and all ages,” she said. Playing hockey at Pitt-Bradford is where she met her fiancé, Brendan Beshock ’15-’17, a chemical engineer who is joining in her in Lexington to work with the biotechnology research firm Alltech.
I'm really looking forward to being in a firm when the first patent that I have drafted gets granted. I think that will be very rewarding.