Intellectual Property Strikes a Chord: An Interview with Jimmy Theo
Dinsmore Chicago intellectual property associate Jimmy Theo was profiled last week by IP Bytes, Loyola University Chicago School of Law's blog. He spoke with IP Bytes about his career and daily law practice.
How did you become interested in intellectual property?
I knew when I entered law school that IP was for me. I was a musical person and an arts lover from a young age, so practicing in “soft” IP was an obvious choice considering I did not have a science or engineering background. My work as a journalist covering political stories before law school also made me want to protect the intangibles of that kind of labor, like the rights associated with publications, through a career in IP.
How did you end up in your current practice area at Dinsmore?
I started my legal career as an in-house attorney in the Legal Department of Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster. I was there for about two years and had exposure to nearly every aspect of IP law. After that, I went to McDonald Hopkins—a firm that provides business law services. There, I handled trademark portfolio management, which meant that I counseled clients on strategies to protect their trademarks to strengthen their brand. I even worked on a portfolio for the world’s largest retailer—it was unbelievably cool to handle such a client that early in my career. From there, I came to Dinsmore with a group of attorneys looking for more resources to grow the expanding practice, and I’m now one of about one hundred IP attorneys at the firm. Dinsmore has a laid-back work environment, and the firm’s 700 attorneys all do fascinating work. It’s been a great place to grow.
To read the entire interview, click here.
