Category A 14
Integrative Neuroscience
B.S., Binghamton University, SUNY, 2019, with General Anthropology. A listed technical subject — not a coursework petition.
Fig. 1
Applicant
Open to patent, IP & technology-law roles
Salma
Juarez
Juris Doctor. Integrative neuroscientist.
Building a patent practice.
Patent practice asks for two things that rarely sit on the same résumé: legal training, and a technical degree the USPTO recognizes. Salma has both — a B.S. in Integrative Neuroscience from Binghamton, then a J.D. from Albany Law. Between them, years spent reading dense records for people whose liberty, benefits, and health depended on someone getting the details right.
- 10Juris DoctorAlbany Law School, May 2026
- 12B.S. Integrative NeuroscienceBinghamton University, SUNY, 2019
- 14USPTO Category A subjectNeuroscience qualifies for the registration exam
- 16New York barSat July 2026 — results pending
- 18English and EspañolClient interviews in both
Abstract
A candidate for patent practice combining a Juris Doctor with a B.S. in Integrative Neuroscience — a subject listed in Category A of the USPTO General Requirements Bulletin. Legal training includes discovery review and arraignment support at the Schenectady County Public Defender's Office, and contract, memoranda, and policy work in the Office of Counsel at the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities. Prior professional work covers federal disability-benefit eligibility determinations, competitive-bid contract drafting, and direct patient care. Undergraduate work includes teaching organic chemistry and physics. Interviews and counsels clients in English and Spanish.
Fig. 2
Qualification
Why the patent bar is open to her.
Registering to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office requires a technical degree. Most law graduates don't have one — that requirement is the reason patent prosecution stays a small field.
Neuroscience is listed in Category A of the USPTO General Requirements Bulletin. Salma's Binghamton degree qualifies her to sit for the registration examination on its own: no supplemental coursework, no petition, no second degree.
Legal 10
Juris Doctor
Albany Law School of Union University, May 2026. Fellow, Women's Leadership Initiative. Member, Diversity Committee.
Admission 16
New York bar
Sat the July 2026 examination. Results expected late October 2026.
Counsel 18
English · Español
Fluent in both. Arraignment interviews, benefits intake, and patient care conducted in either language.
Fig. 3
Record
Two records,
read together.
The technical training and the legal training aren't separate lines on a résumé. Each row below is one capability, where it was built, and what it does inside a patent practice.
Capability
Where she built it
What it does in patent work
Reading a technical record cold
A neuroscience curriculum; teaching organic chemistry and physics to undergraduates as a TA.
Understanding an invention well enough to write about it accurately.
Finding the fact that decides it
Discovery review at the Public Defender's Office — police reports, body-camera footage, witness statements, evidentiary records.
Prior-art review, claim charts, document discovery.
Writing so it holds up
Legal memoranda and correspondence for the OPWDD Office of Counsel; RFP and contract drafting at Maximus.
Specifications, office-action responses, agreements.
Cataloguing what was agreed
Evaluated and catalogued memoranda of understanding between OPWDD and sister state agencies.
License, assignment, and portfolio review.
Explaining it to the person it affects
Arraignment interviews; federal disability-benefit intake; direct patient care at Albany Medical Center.
Inventor interviews and client counselling, in English or Spanish.
Fig. 4
Work
Outside the casebook.
Neither of these is client work, and neither is presented as an invention. They're here because they show how she takes a system apart — a citation rule, or a sheet of two-way acrylic — and puts it back together so someone else can use it.
Exhibit A — in development
BluBookr
40Diamond v. Chakrabarty,
42447
44U.S.
46303,
48309
50(1980).
40 case name · 42 volume · 44 reporter · 46 first page · 48 pincite · 50 year
Bluebook and Whitebook practice built as a drill rather than a lookup table — the citation is taken apart and the student is asked to rebuild it. Salma works the rules side: which forms students actually get wrong, and how a question has to be phrased to catch the error.
blubookr.comExhibit B — component selection
Interactive smart mirror
08:42
20 two-way acrylic, 3.0 mm · 22 24″ IPS panel · 24 Raspberry Pi · 26 IR touch frame · 28 PIR sensor · 30 perimeter LEDs
A two-way acrylic sheet over an IPS panel, driven by a Raspberry Pi, with an infrared touch overlay, wake-on-approach motion sensing, and perimeter lighting. Phase one tests the optics with nothing but a monitor and mirrored acrylic; phase two commits to the enclosure, the controller, and the touch layer.
Fig. 5
History
Where the record
was made.
Court, state agency, hospital, federal benefits. Every one of these roles ran on high-volume records where an error lands on a real person.
-
Feb — May 2026
Legal intern
Schenectady County Public Defender's Office
Reviewed discovery — police reports, body-camera footage, witness statements, evidentiary records — to identify the facts and issues that mattered to the defense. Supported attorneys at initial appearances and assisted at arraignments by interviewing clients and gathering case information under time pressure.
-
Aug 2025 — May 2026
Patient care associate
Albany Medical Center
Direct patient care carried alongside a full law-school course load.
-
Jun — Aug 2024
Legal intern — Office of Counsel
NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities
Supported the Deputy Counsel on a long-term project evaluating and cataloguing memoranda of understanding between OPWDD and sister state agencies. Edited internal legal memoranda and correspondence for clarity and compliance, and sat in on program and policy meetings. Medicaid, Contracts & Real Estate Bureau.
-
Oct 2019 — Nov 2021
Eligibility specialist
Maximus Inc.
Determined eligibility for federal disability benefits through intake screening, secured the consents needed to request medical records on a claim, and contributed to a Request for Proposal and to contracts during a competitive bidding process.
Legal education
Albany Law School Union University — J.D., May 2026
Fellow, Women's Leadership Initiative. Member, Diversity Committee.
Technical foundation
Binghamton University SUNY — B.S., May 2019
Integrative Neuroscience and General Anthropology. Teaching assistant in organic chemistry and physics; research assistant, English Department; mentor, Summer College Mentor Program.
Certification & service
SOAR SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access & Recovery — 2020
Vice President, Secretary, and Public Relations Chair, American Red Cross Club at Binghamton, 2016–2019. Maternal and child care volunteer, United Health Services.
Let's talk
about the work.
Open to patent prosecution, patent litigation, and technology-law roles in New York City and the Capital Region. Résumé, transcript, and a writing sample on request.
- Applicant
- Juarez, Salma
- Location
- Albany, New York
- Languages
- English · Español
- Degrees
- J.D. · B.S. Neuroscience
- Telephone
- (914) 893-8335
- Sheet
- 5 of 5