Interviewee:
Jacob Song
Director of Legal Affairs, Marconi
Interviewer:
Nicole Cohen
ADAPT Communications Team
ADAPT strives to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in in the patent industry, in part,
through accessibility to information. As part of this effort, ADAPT provides a platform that helps
the industry jump-start DEI efforts by leveraging our database of volunteer and sponsorship
opportunities for practitioners looking to join or sponsor an existing effort.
Avanci is the latest ADAPT member to leverage the platform to successfully learn, join and
implement the program within their organization. We recently met with Jacob Song, Director of
Legal Affairs at Marconi, to learn more about the company’s experience.
What inspired Avanci to join ADAPT?
As a company with a diverse employee population around the world, joining ADAPT aligned
with Avanci’s values of being collaborative and solutions driven. Avanci drives transformation
in our industry through teamwork, and we feel we can accomplish so much more working
together. As a fast-growing company with many experienced IP professionals at all levels, we
found ourselves deeply committed to the principles of DEI but needed support to develop our
own programs. ADAPT facilitates this support through their “direct join” measures in which they
provide organizations with established DEI efforts to directly partner with.
Why Street Law?
Some of our colleagues had prior experience with ADAPT before joining Avanci, so our DEI
group took their suggestion to review the ADAPT resources to set our agenda for the year. After
joining ADAPT, one of our colleagues highlighted his fantastic experience with Street Law at a
previous employer. Street Law’s focus on connecting with the local community and raising
awareness of careers in IP resonated with our ideas for incorporating DEI into our company
culture. We felt inspired to share our career journeys and potentially provide exposure to IP for
highly motivated students who might not otherwise know about those types of opportunities.
The Street Law program stood out as something we all wanted to pursue. After the initial process
of joining Street Law and identifying a partner school, we committed to running the Street Law
program in the Fall of 2023 with the Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet in Dallas. The Street
Law program provided initial training for volunteers, followed by two visits to the school to
teach lesson modules, and culminated in a capstone event at our office, hosting a class of more
than 20 students and teachers from our partner school.
What was your experience with Street Law like?
While we get the chance to collaborate for work every day, this volunteering experience
provided a unique bonding opportunity for all of us as we engaged with the students. We had the
opportunity to explain our various paths to careers in IP, field their questions, and teach the
students some of the fundamental concepts of IP and Advertising Law during the classroom
visits. We were thrilled to find the students were incredibly impressive and engaged during the
lessons, which in turn motivated our volunteers to put on a stand-out capstone event for the
students.
On the day of the capstone event, folks at all levels of our company were involved — our
President and COO Jamie Ribman offered welcome and opening remarks; founder and CEO Kasim Alfalahi addressed the students during the lunch break, and we presented certificates of completion to the students.
Though the volunteers were impressed after the classroom lessons, the students truly amazed our volunteers during the capstone event—every student was enthusiastically engaged, and their feedback confirmed that they got a lot out of the program. For example, they said:
“I learned a lot about patent law and advertisement law. But I also understood
more about the rationale behind the law.”
“It was very interactive and fun, especially the activities.”
“There is not one way to become a lawyer.”
“Maybe make it longer? It was a great experience, and I’d love to do more of it.”
Looking ahead, how do you plan to collaborate with ADAPT and Street Law?
We plan to continue with another Street Law program in 2024 and highly recommend any
company—big or small—to consider this as part of their DEI program. Thanks to ADAPT we
found this fantastic program and we hope to explore more DEI programs curated and promoted by ADAPT.
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