The Intellectual Property Honors Program

The IPLC is home to the Intellectual Property Honors Program. Under its auspices, selected entering St. John’s Law students who plan to pursue intellectual property practice receive an annual tuition stipend of $10,000 to fund their studies, as well as special opportunities to engage in academic endeavors related to their field of interest for their full three years at the Law School.

“From the start of my first year, the IP Honors Program provided an opportunity for mentorship and advisement from the IP faculty,” says Amanda Hoffman '17, who starts work this fall in the Intellectual Property Litigation practice group at Paul Hastings LLP, where she’ll focus on pharmaceutical and life sciences patent litigation. “Those relationships continued as the IP faculty became my professors throughout my second and third years. I’ve also enjoyed the community of IP Honors Scholars. We have a common interest and help to support and advise one another.”

As an IP Honors Scholar, Hoffman had the opportunity as a 1L to participate with upper level students in the IPLC’s biennial IP Colloquium, which explores doctrinal, theoretical, and policy issues in IP Law. The Colloquium centers on regular presentations by outside scholars who are nationally recognized in their fields. It not only exposes students to a broad array of interdisciplinary scholarship, but also requires them to engage in both written and oral analysis and critique of that scholarship.

“The Colloquium is a cornerstone of the IPLC’s offerings and embodies our mission of supporting research to promote forward thinking and socially responsible legal and policy frameworks related to IP Law,” Professor Subotnik says. “It also bridges classroom learning to legal scholarship and law practice, which is an invaluable connection for our students to make as they hone the IP Law knowledge and skills they will use along their career paths.”

Sidebar: St. John’s IP Honors Scholars to date

Class of 2017

  • Alyssa D'Antonio
  • Olivia Cheung
  • Amanda Hoffman

Class of 2018

  • James Duckham
  • Cristen C. McGrath

Class of 2019

  • Philip J. Branigan
  • Arianna T. Clark
  • Antonio J. Guzman Dominguez

Class of 2020

  • John Peter Amato
  • Richard Hauser
  • Fatih Mercan