In the second episode of IP Innovators, host Steve Brachmann sits down with Chris Agrawal, Managing Partner at Bookoff McAndrews, to explore a career that spans from physically thumbing through paper patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to piloting generative AI tools in a modern, cloud-first law firm. Chris Agrawal’s story is one of transformation—not just personal, but systemic, as the practice of patent law adapts to technology at every level.
A Career Built One Patent at a Time
Chris Agrawal’s path into patent law began unusually early. As an undergraduate at George Washington University, he enrolled in a dual-degree program that combined engineering and law, tailored specifically for aspiring patent attorneys. During that time, he worked as a public patent searcher, scouring physical “shoes” of patents—literal paper files categorized by class and subclass—before later examining at the USPTO.
“It was a humongous room with tall ceilings and large shelves of just stacks of patents,” he recalls. “You’d flip through physical copies looking for prior art. It was incredibly inefficient—sometimes it would take hours or even days just to get a file history.”
That inefficiency wasn’t just in the search process. Filing required printing and physically delivering documents to the patent office window. “You’d get the postcard stamped and save it as proof,” Chris said. “It sounds like a Dewey Decimal system, but that’s exactly what it was.”
Law School at Night, Practice by Day
Chris transitioned from the USPTO to private practice while attending law school at night. He became a student associate at Finnegan, working full-time while continuing his studies—an intense, four-year grind. “At any given moment, if you focused too hard on how much you had ahead of you, it could be overwhelming,” he said. “I just took it one day at a time.”
The benefit of this demanding path was a steep, hands-on learning curve. By the time he graduated, he’d already had significant exposure to prosecution, counseling, and even early litigation support.
The Role of AI in Drafting Patents
Chris has observed that early experimentation with generative AI in patent drafting is influencing law firms broadly. “A few of our clients expressed interest, and so we’re piloting a number of gen AI tools—but always with guardrails to ensure data confidentiality,” he notes, emphasizing the cautious approach firms are taking.
He also highlights that “not all tools are created equal,” explaining, “Some tools just take in a bunch of information and spit something out—but we’ve found more value in the ones that are iterative, that allow you to work back and forth with the document. You need to massage the output, and that’s easier when it’s integrated into your workflow, like in Word.”
Chris points out that performance varies across technical domains: “Some tools do better with flowchart-heavy, algorithmic content—others are better at mechanical or drawing-intensive inventions. I think it depends on how the models are trained.”
While generative AI is not yet replacing human drafters, he sees “real potential for enhancing productivity,” noting that “they help you get a first draft or populate sections. And when combined with automation for prepping documents or pulling data from docketing systems, the time savings can be substantial.”
Going Virtual—Efficiently
Before the pandemic made remote work commonplace, many law firms had already begun adopting fully virtual, cloud-based systems to run their operations. This shift to a digital model has both benefits and challenges but has enabled firms to scale effectively while staying flexible to meet client needs across different sectors. By using video conferencing for invention disclosures and client consultations, firms can collaborate efficiently while still preserving in-person meetings. “We used to fly across the country to meet with inventors. Now we can do it all on Zoom, back-to-back. It’s more efficient, though we still value in-person meetings for deeper relationship building.”
Looking Ahead
Chris’ reflections make clear that while the substance of patent law remains rooted in the same goals—protecting innovation, navigating the USPTO, serving clients—the practice itself has been transformed by technology. “Even what you’d think of as a pure mechanical device now has some software or AI component. Everything is connected,” he said.
The future is about balancing efficiency with quality. “You can’t replace judgment and deep technical understanding. But you can remove friction. And that’s what tools like generative AI, cloud systems, and automation are really about.”
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