Careers @ Stake
Join our mission.
Who we are.
Stake was founded on the idea that startups deserve great counsel as they bring new products to market. Our mission is to be known as scary good at IP law.
We combine big-law experience with entrepreneurial intensity. We handle all aspects of patent and trademark law, from strategy and applications through post-grant proceedings, licensing, due diligence, and litigation.
Four core values guide how we work:
- Integrity: Our north star. We earn and keep our team’s and clients’ trust through our word and our work.
- Candor: We share what we know and look for opportunities to teach and learn.
- Synergy: We reject the everyone-for-yourself mentality. We rise and fall as a team.
- Excellence: Good work is personal. We strive for excellence inside and outside the workplace.
We’re a tech-powered, fully remote firm with no billable-hour requirement. We make time for curiosity and innovation, and clients are Stake’s clients (IYKYK).
If you share these values and want to help us build something exceptional, we’d like to hear from you.
Current Opportunities.
Registered Patent Agent, Full-Time
We are seeking a Registered Patent Agent to help our clients protect the technologies they are building and bring strong patent applications from invention disclosure through prosecution. This is a full-time role.
About this role
You’ll work with Stake attorneys and clients to understand new technologies, draft high-quality patent applications, and prosecute applications before the USPTO.
This is a hands-on practitioner role. We’re looking for someone who understands both the technology and the craft of patent prosecution, exercises sound judgment, communicates clearly, and takes ownership of their work.
Depending on your experience and interests, you’ll also have opportunities to work directly with clients and inventors, contribute to patent strategy and portfolio development, and participate in business development.
What this role entails:
- Draft high-quality patent applications and claims across a range of technologies.
- Prepare responses to USPTO office actions and participate in examiner interviews.
- Analyze prior art and develop thoughtful prosecution strategies.
- Work with attorneys and inventors to understand inventions and develop strong patent disclosures.
- Support U.S. and international patent portfolios, including coordination with foreign counsel.
- Manage matters, workload, and deadlines with a high degree of ownership.
- Collaborate on patent strategy and prosecution, with opportunities for client-facing and business-development responsibilities if interested.
What this role is not:
- A production-line drafting role. We value judgment, strategy, and quality, not simply moving applications through a queue.
- A narrow technical role. You’ll need to understand both the technology and its broader patent and business context.
- A solo endeavor. We expect our practitioners to collaborate, teach, learn, and support one another.
Required qualifications:
- Exceptional writing and editing skills.
- Active registration to practice in patent matters before the USPTO.
- Strong technical background in engineering, computer science, physics, or another patent-relevant discipline.
- Ability to understand complex technologies and explain them accurately and clearly.
- Experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications before the USPTO.
- Strong analytical skills, including prior-art analysis and prosecution strategy.
- Excellent organization, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple matters and deadlines.
- Ability to work independently and collaborate effectively with a remote team.
- 2+ years of relevant patent preparation and prosecution experience
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience working with startups, emerging companies, or entrepreneurial clients.
- Experience with software, artificial intelligence, electrical, mechanical, or other emerging technologies.
- Experience with patent-portfolio development or international patent prosecution.
- Experience communicating directly with inventors and clients.
- Interest in developing client relationships and participating in business development.
- Interest in improving patent practice through technology, collaboration, and better processes.
Compensation and benefits
- Annual salary: $100,000–$125,000, depending on experience.
- Fully remote in states where Stake is currently able to employ personnel.
- Healthcare stipend, subject to the terms of Stake’s applicable benefit arrangement.
- Professional growth and networking opportunities.
- Continuing legal education opportunities.
- No minimum billable hour requirement.
Location
Stake is a fully remote law firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. We do not maintain a traditional office, and our team works remotely. Occasional travel may be required for client meetings, business development, or team retreats.
You’ll be expected to know and comply with all licensing, registration, confidentiality, and other ethical requirements, duties, and limitations relating to your work location and setting.
Trademark Paralegal, Part-Time
We’re seeking a Trademark Paralegal to support Stake’s growing trademark practice and help manage U.S. and international trademark matters from filing through registration and maintenance. This is a part-time role with an opportunity to transition to full-time as the firm grows.
About this role
You’ll work with Stake attorneys to keep trademark matters moving accurately and efficiently, preparing filings, managing deadlines, coordinating with clients and foreign counsel, and helping maintain trademark portfolios.
This is a hands-on role. We’re looking for someone who understands trademark prosecution, is exceptionally organized and detail-oriented, communicates clearly, and takes ownership of their work.
What this role entails:
- Prepare trademark applications, prosecution documents, maintenance filings, and other USPTO submissions for attorney review and filing.
- Monitor dockets, deadlines, and USPTO correspondence and coordinate required action with attorneys.
- Coordinate with clients and foreign counsel on U.S. and international trademark matters.
- Conduct and organize trademark searches and related research.
- Maintain accurate trademark records, portfolio information, correspondence, and reports.
- Manage matters and deadlines with a high degree of ownership while collaborating with attorneys and other team members.
What this role is not:
- A purely administrative role. You’ll understand the matters you’re working on, anticipate next steps, and exercise good judgment about what needs attention.
- A volume-processing role. Accuracy, judgment, and quality matter more than simply clearing a queue.
- A solo endeavor. We expect our team members to communicate, collaborate, teach, learn, and support one another.
Required qualifications:
- Exceptional organization, attention to detail, and written communication skills.
- Experience with U.S. trademark prosecution, USPTO filing procedures, and trademark docketing.
- Experience preparing trademark applications and post-filing submissions.
- Strong judgment and ability to recognize issues requiring attorney attention.
- Ability to manage multiple matters and deadlines accurately and independently.
- Comfort with legal technology and working collaboratively in a remote environment.
- 2+ years of relevant trademark or intellectual-property paralegal experience.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with international trademark portfolios and foreign counsel.
- Experience conducting or coordinating trademark clearance searches.
- Experience communicating directly with clients.
- Experience working with startups, emerging companies, or entrepreneurial clients.
- Interest in improving legal work through technology and better processes.
Compensation and benefits
- Annual salary: $40,000–$50,000, depending on experience. This part-time position is scoped for an average commitment of approximately 20 hours per week.
- Fully remote in states where Stake is currently able to employ personnel.
- Professional growth and networking opportunities.
- Continuing legal education opportunities.
- No minimum billable hour requirement.
Location
Stake is a fully remote law firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. We do not maintain a traditional office, and our team works remotely. Occasional travel may be required for client meetings or team retreats.
You’ll be expected to know and comply with all licensing, registration, confidentiality, and other ethical requirements, duties, and limitations relating to your work location and setting.
Content Manager, Part-Time
We are seeking a Content Manager to own and execute content for Stake and our attorneys. This is a part-time role with an opportunity to transition to full-time as the firm grows.
About this role
You’ll turn the expertise, ideas, and personalities of our attorneys into compelling content people actually want to read, watch, and share.
You’ll own the process from idea to publication: identifying topics, interviewing attorneys, writing and editing, creating and coordinating visual and video content, managing the content calendar, publishing across social channels, and learning from what performs.
This is a hands-on creative role. We’re looking for someone who can set the strategy and do the work.
What this role entails:
- Own content strategy, calendar, and publishing for Stake and key attorneys.
- Develop content ideas from attorney expertise, industry developments, current trends, and client questions.
- Interview attorneys and turn their ideas and expertise into compelling content.
- Write and edit social posts, articles, case studies, scripts, and newsletters that are smart, clear, credible, human, and consistent with Stake’s values.
- Create or coordinate visual and short-form video content.
- Develop Stake’s brand voice while maintaining each attorney’s distinct, authentic voice.
- Coordinate content development and approvals with attorneys.
- Repurpose strong content across formats and channels.
- Prioritize content opportunities, track performance, experiment, and refine content accordingly.
What this role is not:
- A strategy-only role. You’ll personally create a significant portion of the content.
- A social-media coordinator-only role. You’ll originate and develop ideas, not simply schedule content other people give you.
- An AI orchestrator. So much content today is AI-written and AI-designed. We don’t oppose AI (we use it regularly), but we understand that judgment cannot be outsourced, and there is a premium on genuinely human content.
- A solo endeavor. We are aiming for authentic content, so the attorneys you work with are expected to take an active role with you.
Required qualifications:
- Exceptional writing and editing skills.
- Strong editorial judgment and an instinct for compelling, substantive content.
- Genuine curiosity about technology, startups, IP, science, engineering, and entrepreneurship.
- Ability to make complex and highly technical subjects clear and engaging, including through storytelling.
- Experience creating and managing digital and social content.
- Strong interviewing and idea-development skills.
- Excellent organization and attention to detail.
- Ability to manage multiple voices, accounts, and deadlines.
- Portfolio or examples of content you’ve personally created.
- Willingness to learn and follow the rules governing legal marketing.
- 2+ years of relevant experience.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience creating content for founders, executives, or subject-matter experts.
- Experience ghostwriting or building individual social profiles.
- Short-form video production experience.
- Graphic-design skills and familiarity with modern creative tools.
- Experience with newsletters, podcasts, webinars, or other long-form content.
- Legal marketing experience.
- A sense of humor and an instinct for authentic content.
Compensation and benefits
- Annual salary: $40,000–$50,000, depending on experience. This part-time position is scoped for an average commitment of approximately 20 hours per week.
- Fully remote in states where Stake is currently able to employ personnel
- Professional growth and networking opportunities
Location
Stake is a fully remote law firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. We do not maintain a traditional office, and our team works remotely. Occasional travel may be required for client meetings, business development, content production, or team retreats.
Positions are open to candidates authorized to work in the United States. For attorney roles, bar admission in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction is required. For patent agent roles, USPTO admission in good standing is required. Candidates must comply with applicable federal and state bar rules governing remote legal practice and multi jurisdictional work. Final employment is contingent upon providing a recent (< 3 months old) certificate of good standing for all licensed jurisdictions and confirmation that the candidate’s bar admission and remote work location comply with applicable state ethics and practice rules.
Our core values.
Integrity
This is our north star. We work hard to earn and keep the trust of our team and clients in our word and our work.
Candor
We share what we know with our team and clients, and we look for opportunities to teach others about what we do and how we do it.
Synergy
We reject the mentality of every-lawyer-for-yourself. We rise and fall as a team, play to our strengths, and aren’t afraid to ask one another for help.
Excellence
Good work is personal. We strive for excellence both inside and outside of the workplace.
How to apply.
If you’d like to apply to work with Stake, send us an email including:
Desired role
Resume
Cover letter (no AI)
Writing sample (again, no AI)
We look forward to hearing from you!
Apply to work with Stake