About

Hi I’m Rita. I’ve practiced IP law for over twenty years.

ESQed grew out of a moment where I was simply stuck. I was staring at a messy USPTO Office Action, unable to find a way through. I knew someone, somewhere, had overcome this exact issue before; but I was at my wits’ end trying to find the right angle.

It made me miss my days in Big Law. Back then, if I hit a wall, I’d just pop into a colleague’s office for a quick chat. The "Aha!" moment wasn't a legal revolution; it was a lead. They would recall a weird strategy deployed years prior or an obscure line of cases they had unearthed. That memory would give me the clue I needed to search through the firm’s digital files.

Those chats weren't groundbreaking. We weren't changing the world or reinventing the law. We were just pointing each other toward a path that could work.

But when you go solo, that "hallway wisdom" vanishes. You’re on your own, without the mentors and shared knowledge that help you grow.

From Big Law to Big Data

A lot has changed since I started practicing law.

Gone are the postcards and express labels. The law now lives in bits and bytes. The USPTO hides its best secrets in plain sight: publicly available, but buried so deep that most files never see the light of day.

The engineer in me (thanks, MIT) accepted this tacit challenge, even though I hadn't written a line of code in years. With a mix of seasoned legal intuition and modern dev tools, I built a system to slowly parse through the treasure trove of USPTO documents to extract the in that help practitioners find a way through.

Why Harvey Won't Eat Your Lunch

We have to talk about AI. As practitioners, we’re told to be worried. I don't see it that way.

A probabilistic word-predictor can mimic the sound of a legal argument, but it cannot understand the nuance of strategy. It doesn't understand the heart of a legal fight or the small shifts in a client's needs. Mastery is built through the mental repertoire we develop over decades. If you’ve spent your life building a mental map of this field, that knowledge is your edge.

Sure, as we slow down due to aging and AI speeds up as chips improve, it might seem like a lost race between the hare and the tortoise. But I’m not worried about the machines getting smarter. My real concern is for the next generation. If AI handles all the "non-thinking" work, the grueling hours spent sifting through memos and transcripts that actually build a lawyer's internal compass, how will younger attorneys develop mastery? If you never build that foundation and never develop your own mental outlines, is brainstorming with AI ever going to be enough?

Learning that Actually Matter

I decided to share this data wisdom through CLEs.

Let's be honest; most of us, at one time or another, treat CLEs like a tax. We've all scrambled for credits at the eleventh hour or sat through dry webinars that had nothing to do with our actual practice area. It is a waste of time.

But every once in a while, you come across an IP-specific CLE that discusses nuanced strategy, dissects a Federal Circuit case, or explores the practical intersection of emerging tech and IP law. Those are the moments that make the hour fly by. You leave feeling pumped, your heart filled with gratitude that you've chosen IP law as your living.

That is what I am building: a space for IP lawyers to continually grow into a better version of themselves while getting the credits they need. No fluff. No boredom.

This is still a work in progress. I’m building it as I go. Whether you’re a fan of the approach or a skeptic, tell me. I’m listening.

Rita
rita@esqed.com
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