Practicing law as a science

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When Dr. Jean C. Baker earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry, she planned to carve out a career as a research scientist.

But as she puts it, “lurking around in a room all day with two other people just wasn’t me.

“I wanted a job where I had more interaction and was able to work on broader scientific issues,” she said.

So Baker decided to attend law school and become a patent attorney.

While an intern with Quarles & Brady, she accompanied two patent attorneys on a client visit and quickly fell in love with the innovative nature of the practice.

“It was so creative and positive,” she said. “Here’s a client coming up with an invention and as attorneys, they help the person understand and talk about patent protection.”

Baker joined the Milwaukee office of Quarles & Brady in 1990, on the cusp of a biochemical explosion in the legal world. And during the last two decades, she has worked on several high-profile projects, including being the lead attorney and client service team chair for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which obtained the first patent on embryonic stem cell cultures.

“A big part of my practice is representing universities and educational institutions all over the place,” she said.

But Baker has also been involved with clients who have advanced commercially successful molecular biology inventions, a new line of immortalized skin cells and several vaccines which are now in clinical trials.

If the work sounds complex, it is, which is why Baker recognizes that that science and law are still seen as an odd combination.

“The two just don’t go together in a lot of people’s minds,” she said. “And biotechnology does not sit squarely within traditional patent law.”

But that is one of the reasons Baker loves her job.

She said every few years there is a “game-changing” discovery in biotechnology which often has an impact on her practice.

“The rough edges have been sanded down over the years, but it is by no means a finished product,” Baker said. “That’s what fun about the job.”

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