#97 The Only Woman in the Room: From Engineering to AI Startup Founder

Описание: Virginia Driver spent 36 years as a patent attorney in a profession she entered through a loophole, hired only because no men had applied. Today, she's building AttainIP, an AI-powered platform that could transform how patents get filed, saving attorneys 50% of their time while making the process accessible to entrepreneurs who previously couldn't afford it.

In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman explores Virginia's journey from being one of eight girls in a 120-person engineering program to becoming the second female patent partner in London. Her path began when a headmistress insisted engineering was "a huge mistake" and urged her to study medicine instead. Her mother's response? "You do what you want to do."

Virginia's career took an unexpected turn last December when a former colleague showed her what new reasoning models could accomplish. Within months, she went from part-time consultancy to startup founder, building software that reveals AI's reasoning process—the missing piece that makes other patent tools hard to verify. Her platform uses OpenAI's O3 model to guide users through patent applications while showing exactly how the AI thinks through each task.

The conversation reveals how Virginia navigated a male-dominated profession without formal law school, studying at night while raising three children, including a baby during her qualifying exams. Her philosophy, borrowed from Lizzo, captures her approach perfectly: "Get out of your own way." She's learned that lawyers excel at imagining barriers to their own ideas—and that people often don't block you if you just keep moving forward. Now she's applying that same mindset to an industry facing its biggest technological shift, proving that career reinvention doesn't have an age limit.

00:00 Introduction and Background
01:20 Virginia's Career Journey
02:18 Specialization in AI and Quantum Patents
03:12 Understanding Quantum Computing
08:02 AI and Intellectual Property
09:54 Challenges in Patent Filing
17:30 Gender Dynamics in Engineering and Patents
19:26 Virginia's Educational Path
26:22 Becoming a Patent Attorney
30:15 Comparing Law School Systems: US vs. UK
31:04 The Path to Becoming a Lawyer in the US
33:26 Law School Costs and Impacts
34:58 Transitioning to a Startup: Attain IP
35:39 How Attain IP Supports Patent Attorneys
40:25 The Future of AI in Law
50:23 Personal Reflections and Career Transitions
54:09 Book Recommendations and Final Thoughts

Links •
Connect with David Schnurman (Host) -   / davidschnurman  
Connect with Virginia Driver (Guest) -   / virginiadriver  
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