Part-Time Evening Student Maximizes Law School Experience with Externship and Patent Success
content
As a 3L studying in the UIC Law Part-Time Evening Program, Kenneth Woodard has maximized his law school experience by utilizing the skills acquired from the law school to help jumpstart his career in the legal field.
Guidance received from Dean Margaret Frossard and the Office of Professionalism & Career Strategy allowed Woodard to secure a competitive externship with circuit court judge the Honorable Marian E. Perkins in the Mortgage Foreclosure / Mechanics Lien Section. During this externship, he assisted with recommending rulings, preparing bench memos, and drafting court opinions.
Throughout the course of the externship, Woodard was able to strengthen his experiential learning by:
- Assisting with briefing and case management call schedules
- Drafting bench memos
- Drafting and revising court opinions
- Preparing judgement packets
- Ordering approving sale packets
- Providing legal resources to self-represented litigants
Woodard not only received guidance from Judge Perkins but found community amongst other UIC Law family in the same office. As the current Editor-in-Chief for the UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law, Woodard was in search of a Candidacy Editor and had connected with another student who was about to graduate in the spring of 2024 and had fulfilled the same role. Once Woodard began the externship in the fall, he learned that the now UIC Law alumna, Simar Thakur, Esq., was also a new hire to the office and would be his supervisor. He later discovered another fellow UIC Law student was serving as an extern for another judge in the same location.
“I felt so fortunate to be working under Attorney Thakur, who had already proved to be an amazing resource and wealth of knowledge as a fellow student at UIC. Simi coached me on my legal writing, taught me the law related to mortgage and foreclosure, and even mentored me in preparation for the bar (she did extremely well),” Woodard said. “It was also encouraging to see her and other UIC alumni come together to support and celebrate each other, such as when a cohort of them were sworn in as Illinois attorneys.”
Patent Success
In addition to experience received through his externship, Woodard was also able to utilize skills acquired from patent classes within the intellectual property, information and privacy law concentration at UIC Law to establish his very own patent.
Woodard designed a virtual platform for student learners who want to find things like a college choice, scholarships, or jobs without knowing a lot of information beforehand. Woodard created User-Interactivity Enabled Search Filter Tool Optimized for Virtualized Worlds as a means to help prospective students customize their searches through a variety of available filters that yield viable options for them to consider.
He was then able to build a design a virtual platform that resembled a set of buildings, each catering to a specific discipline like engineering, business, or healthcare. Once an avatar enters into a building, or sector, the system begins to collect and gather data in the background to help the prospective student make an informed decision.
“There are elevators in each building. Instead of going to floor 1, 2, or 3, you can filter by desired salary range,” Woodard explained. “Whichever floor you go to, the backend begins to filter data for jobs within that range.”
Woodard also explained how the system gathers data for certain job roles.
“There are rooms that you can go into that resemble different types of jobs. For instance, if you enter the healthcare building, you may walk to the front desk, the triage, or a clinical space. Based on your proximity to that room, the system will begin to filter information about roles within those departments on the backend,” he said.
Woodard credits the patent class at UIC Law for helping him develop a deeper understanding of how patents are managed and how to better assist clients.
“The class not only helped me connect with lawyers on how I wanted my patent described but also helped me be able to advocate for myself on various items I discussed with my lawyers. I would not have been able to do that without the help of the patent law class and the guidance of Supervising Attorney Clare Frederick,” Woodard said.
Woodard has continued to strengthen his expertise with patents as a student clinician in the Patent Legal Clinic at UIC Law.
Participating in the patent externship, RIPL board, and Moot Court board have allowed Woodard to combine his passion for intellectual property and appellate law. Post commencement in May 2025, Woodard plans to be an intellectual property lawyer for educational technology companies.