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Julie Kirby’s résumé looks like the kind of ping-pong career we’re all told we need to pursue to be “successful.” After two years of early experience at a midsize Milwaukee law firm, Kirby would spend the next nearly seventeen years at firm Jansson, Munger, McKinley, & Kirby before going in-house with Fiserv in 2023. What kept her in private practice for so long if she was eventually going to go in-house?
“I loved it,” Kirby sums up easily. “I loved IP. I loved the clients that I worked for every day. I was working with inventors and companies that I developed such close relationships with over the years. I was surrounded by wonderful people. When that’s your relationship to your work, the time goes so quickly.”
Kirby has always loved science. She assumed medicine would be her career. But during a summer lab job, she also realized that she might be wrong. She was too social for a life as a bench scientist, but might there be some other line of work that would include her deep love of the hard sciences?
She found IP. A college professor told Kirby about her brother who was a patent attorney, and maybe she should look into it.
“It’s crazy how a one-off conversation impacted the rest of my career,” Kirby says. “It’s been over twenty years since I graduated, and I wonder what would have happened if I’d never had that conversation with that particular professor. I just fell into it like I belonged there.”
Despite seventeen years of successful private IP practice, Kirby always wondered what it might be like on the other side, supporting just one client, and supporting one organization’s entire portfolio.
Luckily, Kirby wouldn’t have to wonder forever. Her predecessor had been in the role for twenty-nine years and was preparing to retire. A colleague heard about the role opening up and reached out to Kirby. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to throw her hat in the ring.
“I was so happy where I was, but I was also intrigued by a different kind of opportunity,” Kirby says. “I wasn’t looking for a job and definitely wouldn’t have known this role was coming open. But when the opportunity was presented to me, I just had to go for it.”
There were some adjustments to be made. Going from a boutique IP firm to a company of 40,000 is not without some complications. The company is spread out over 120 locations, and tracking down the right individual for the right conversation can provide some measure of challenge. But it’s been enough time for Kirby to make a pronouncement.
“If you’re thinking about going in-house, go for it,” the VP says. “It broadened my career. It’s given me a whole different aspect to my IP practice. This gamble has completely paid off for me.”
Kirby says her favorite part of her role within Fiserv is working with different engineers to build out the company’s rapidly expanding patent portfolio. Kirby was also impressed at how quick the company is to protect its IP and at how many different parts of the organization have come up with truly innovative ideas.
“You have time to grow and develop, as long as you know what you’re ultimately working toward.”
Julie Kirby
What Kirby has been able to bring to the role lies in her genuine enthusiasm for building out that portfolio. The lawyer loves the nuances of writing and grammar. Her eye for detail is the kind that you want looking out for the best interests of your IP. She brings an obviously strong background and variety of IP experience, and she’s more than comfortable on litigation matters when they arise.
For those budding IP all-stars, Kirby has sound advice.
“Where do you want to be ten years from now?” the VP asks. “I think it’s important to set long-term goals for yourself. I also think it’s important to remember that you don’t need to get caught up in the small stuff.” Kirby encourages people to keep that long-term vision in mind, knowing it’s hard to keep that kind of big picture when you’re so entrenched, but people should still try. “It’s bigger than one week or one month,” she notes. “You have time to grow and develop, as long as you know what you’re ultimately working toward.”
Kirby is happy she went in-house, but what’s more striking about the VP is that as long as it concerns IP, she would have found a way to be happy being on either side of the fence.
“The strong relationships that Julie has built within Fiserv and her collaborative and open-minded approach to tackling litigation issues consistently lead to successful strategies and outcomes, and make working with her an absolute pleasure.”
–Kelly Ransom, Partner
