This summer, Hartman Global Intellectual Property (IP) Law welcomed a new intern to its team: Navy veteran and Crown Point resident Ryan Richter. He is a law student currently preparing for the U.S. Patent & Trade Office bar exam and also juggling dad duties, with a set of twins on the way.
Richter joined the Navy straight out of high school, enlisting at 18 and entering into its nuclear propulsion program where he learned the ins and outs of the reactors that power the Navy’s submarines and aircraft carriers. It gave an advanced engineer’s toolset that he took with him into his first job out of the military.
“Before I joined the Navy, I couldn’t even change the oil in my own car,” he said. “I didn’t really have a technical bone in my body before I got trained on nuclear power. They trained us on reactor principles, chemistry and radiation, heat transfer and fluid flow. It really built out my technical background.”
When Richter wrapped up his naval career, he took up a job in equipment breakdown insurance. It put his technical skills to work on inspecting different machinery and equipment – and sparked his interest in law.
“That was one of my first exposures to law, doing boiler and pressure vessel inspections which the state requires at a certain frequency,” he said. “I had to do a lot of inspecting per code, and that made me think that law might be a good fit for me long-term. I wanted to use the G.I. Bill benefits that I’d earned, and what better way to do that than by graduating debt-free from law school?”
There are dozens of paths to choose from as a future attorney, such as personal injury or family law. Richter opted to put the technical skills he learned studying nuclear reactors back to work by studying IP law, perhaps the most engineering-focused branch of the legal system.
“Some people might know what they want based on their family being lawyers or past traumas like a bad car accident,” he said. “I didn’t really have anything like that; there was nothing that made me think, ‘Oh, I should study tort law.’ I just got to law school and people said, ‘Well, with that background, you should try IP!’”
It worked out well, and Richter even found that his experience researching different equipment and job sites in his insurance career primed him to more effectively draft patent applications. The Navy, however, left the biggest lasting impact.
“The nuclear program was a professional school where I was paid to learn at 18,” he said. “Now, as a 32 year old blessed to be going back to school, I’ve really been drawing on that experience to pursue this legal career.”
When Richter wrapped up his third semester of law school, he decided it was time to formally get his foot in the door of IP law. He sought out an internship and first connected with Hartman Global the same way many jobseekers find an employer: Google.
“I did a search for local IP places, and Hartman Global is really the only one that came up outside of Chicago,” he said. “I just dropped off my application and expressed my interest in helping out the team in any way I could.”
It worked out, with Hartman Global bringing him aboard and giving him his first opportunity to put his legal schooling into action.
“They’ve been so accommodating and flexible,” Richter said. “With zero experience in the field, I don’t think I’m helping their bottom line too much with my contributions, so everything they’re doing is out of the generosity in their hearts. They’re teaching me and helping me get my feet wet.”
Hartman Global is owned by the husband and wife patent attorney tag team of Gary and Domenica Hartman, who deeply value finding ways to give back to the community. Their summer internship program has also seen local high school grads get their first experience in a law office before heading to college.
“It reminds me a lot of my in-laws who are also small business owners and just a husband and a wife who are helping the community,” Richter said.
Richter’s responsibilities at Hartman Global have included helping to draft basic patent applications as well as analyzing rejected applications and outlining potential solutions.
“This experience has been so instrumental,” he said. “Some of the stuff you study seems so arbitrary when you’re looking at it in an online course. It’s just words and videos until you see it in actual practice. This is real boots-on-ground experience, and that’s just so valuable.”
With the end of his internship not too far down the line, and his licensing exam waiting further on the horizon, the Navy vet is both grateful for the opportunity to pursue higher education and eager to launch his own career as an attorney.
“I’m just so excited, I’m really enjoying school,” he said. “As a 32 year old, the opportunity to be learning for a living is such a blessing. It’s a dream come true. I’m excited to finish, but if I could study and learn for the rest of my life and get paid to do it, I'd love that as well! My partner and I have twins on the way, and I know she’s excited for me to finish up as well.”
To learn more about Hartman Global IP Law, visit hartmanglobal-ip.com.
