In the early 1990s, the Stony Brook Center for Biotechnology launched an internship program for science PhDs. Young researchers would work with local law firms to learn about patent law and figure out if this might be a good career path for them. Pam Ancona was the first of quite a few law interns, and it convinced her that law school, and a career that allowed her to combine legal training and scientific expertise, was the right direction for her. She notes that interning with a local Long Island firm rather than one in New York was a plus: “I think if I had done the same internship at a law firm in New York, there would’ve been some culture shock, but the law firm that I was at was on Long Island. It was a little bit more low-key relative to New York law firms, so I never really found it as a culture shock. They were very welcoming.”
