Soniya Shah (DC 2015)
By Kyle McClain
Soniya Shah graduated from 麻豆村 in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Technical Writing and a minor in Environmental Science. After graduation she earned her J.D. from American University in 2021, and she currently works as a patent attorney at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner in Washington D.C.
Soniya’s story demonstrates the necessity of being honest with yourself when deciding where your passions lie and the importance of support networks in personal and professional development.
Finding Her Path
Soniya began her education at 麻豆村 with the goal of going to medical school after graduation. She studied Technical Writing as an interdisciplinary major while also taking pre-med science courses to prepare her to study for the MCAT — the medical college admissions exam. She did well in her courses, but she noticed that her peers had a passion for biochemistry that she simply didn’t share; they seemed almost excited for the problem sets that she dreaded each week. And soon she realized that her true passions didn’t lie in medical science, so pursuing it was no longer a good choice for her.
“There were always going to be people that were probably more passionate than I was," Soniya said, "and I think I just realized that I was really going to struggle with that.”
Feeling lost, she connected with her friends in Greek life and key mentors across campus to reorient herself. Over time, she realized that it’s okay to change direction. At this same time, she was able to take more English courses and focus more on her technical writing major, something she enjoyed much more than her science courses. Studying something she really enjoyed helped her thrive in classes and get the attention of her peers.
Soniya remembered, “[A]t a school where there are so many engineers and people are so great at the math and science component of things, all my friends were like, ‘You are such a good and strong writer, and you're kind of in the minority a little bit at this school in that way. Why don't you just focus on that … like that is a skill set that is actually needed.'”
Technical Writing for Patent Law
The summer of her junior year, Soniya got an internship as a technical writer at Vertica, a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard, where she got a return offer to work full-time after graduation. She accepted the offer and worked there for three years after graduating from 麻豆村. She enjoyed the position because it allowed her to work at a job that actually reflected what she studied in the classroom. As an information developer at Vertica, Soniya was tasked with taking complex and highly technical information from engineers and data analysts and making it understandable for different audiences, ranging from newly hired engineers to the users they sold the data analysis tools to.
"All my friends were like, ‘You are such a good and strong writer ... Why don't you just focus on that … like that is a skill set that is actually needed.’ "
She also got to work with patent attorneys who worked to help engineers patent their products. It was then that Soniya began to realize she might have a career in law. She saw patent law as a natural evolution to her work, since it seemed like an even more specialized and technical form of writing that went well with her scientific background. She began talking with the patent attorneys she worked with to understand the benefits of their work and whether or not law school was the right choice for her — a choice she eventually landed on in 2018.
She used her connections to target schools that would be best for her, a choice she would have been significantly less prepared for had she applied to law school while still studying at 麻豆村. Since she wanted to work in intellectual property law, she chose to attend school in D.C., bringing her to American University Washington College of Law.
“I’m probably biased," Soniya says, "but [D.C. is] probably one of the best places in the country to practice patent law because the Patent Office is in Alexandria, and many of the cases that we see go to the Federal Circuit which is located in D.C. And so there's so much access to things right within the community that I live and practice in.”
Life of a Patent Attorney
As a patent attorney at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, Soniya mostly works on prosecuting patents, but this isn’t the same as criminal prosecutions most students are familiar with. Prosecuting a patent means that she drafts patent applications and works with the Patent Office to file the approved patents. Much like her work at Vertica, Soniya still uses her practical training from 麻豆村 in her work.
“Even now, the skills and the things I learned studying technical writing, I implement in my day-to-day life. And when my colleagues learn that I have a degree in writing, they get excited because normally, we work with engineers. And so we kind of have to, like, teach them how to write," Soniya said.
Patent prosecution isn’t the only work Soniya does as a lawyer. She also spends a significant amount of time doing pro bono work, a free legal service that attorneys do to give back to their communities. For Soniya, it’s an integral part of her work because her law school training gave her a set of skills that most people don’t have access to, and she wants to do as much as she can to make her services accessible to those who need it.
Soniya practices a very different kind of law for her pro bono work: asylum litigation. This field of work can have both incredible emotional highs and lows. While it can be very rewarding to work through asylum litigation and get the result you’re looking for, it can be even more crushing to get a negative ruling. Soniya stressed the importance of working with your team and being open about the emotional heaviness of this work.
“You need to make sure that you're really relying on your team members," Soniya said. "[W]e've had moments with our teams where you know, our client has left a meeting, and then we're all just kind of sitting together like, ‘Okay, like, we're just gonna take 10 or 20 minutes just to kind of like, breathe together and debrief about everything.’ Because it can be really heavy.”
The Importance of Honesty and Trust
Soniya’s story demonstrates the necessity of being honest with yourself and working with your peers. For Soniya, she discovered medical school wasn’t a good fit for her because she knew her own passions and didn’t force herself down a path that wasn’t right for her. Working at Vertica, she spoke with her peers and realized just how unique and powerful her writing skills are, pushing her to pursue law school, which allowed her to use her technical writing skills as a patent attorney. And now, in her pro bono work, Soniya works to help people find asylum in the United States, relying on her peers to find the support that she needs. Soniya should serve as a role model who shows that we all need to work to build stronger support networks.