Law graduate uses time in UM Office of Technology Commercialization to expand knowledge
An interest in being a change agent for the socioeconomic and ethnic inequities that she realized is what spurred Jennifer Brooks to pursue law school.
A native of Jackson, Brooks enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law after earning a bachelor’s in communication and culture from Howard University.
Before law school, though, Brooks worked at a news station in Mississippi during the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement and realized the power of media and messaging. She then worked at an Apple Store and realized she was in a unique position to work on helping solve social justice issues if she followed her “guts” and went to law school.
Brooks started her law education at a different university before deciding to transfer to the UM School of Law after meeting former Ole Miss law professor Michelé Alexandre, now dean of the Stetson University College of Law, during a study abroad trip in Cape Town, South Africa.
“Over the course of the summer, professor Alexandre convinced me to come to UM law,” Brooks said.
The decision has been favorable for both Brooks and the law school.
During her law school studies, Brooks has become an editor on the Center for Air and Space Law’s Journal of Space Law, earned the school’s William W. Gates Memorial Scholarship and become the first member of her family to earn a professional degree.
In August 2019, Brooks also became a graduate student analyst with the university’s Office of Technology Commercialization after a summer internship.
“A law school classmate told me that she had done a semester with the office, and she gave me the contact information of my current supervisor,” Brooks said. “I wanted to gain intellectual property law experience.”
Her experience with the office has led to daily dealings with patents and trademarks, creating market and environmental analyses on proposed inventions, speaking with various inventors and conducting prior art searches, which involves researching publicly available information on products, inventions and concepts similar to an idea being considered for patent or commercialization.
Thanks to her experience in the office, Brooks said she has “an understanding of intellectual property law that allows me to go a few routes, from law to business and science.
“Ultimately, my experience at the Office of Technology Commercialization helps me and will help me more to understand how to materialize ideas.”
The goal for Brooks is to become a U.S. Air Force judge advocate general.
“I will be – more or less – a general practitioner for the military; but I hope to get involved with space law and military technology policy at some point in my military career,” she said.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has cut Brooks’ physical time on campus short, she had anticipated that remote technology would become more commonplace in academia and the workplace, so the experience has offered new training.
“I’m grateful for health, and I understand why things are happening the way they are happening,” she said.
Still, Brooks is sad her family won’t be able to attend a physical ceremony on campus May 9. Since she’s the first in her family to earn an advanced degree, the ceremony was a huge deal for herself and her extended family.
But in the new reality of COVID-19, Brooks and family will find a different way to celebrate.
“I honestly don’t know what my parents have up their sleeves to celebrate,” she said. “However, I am looking forward to a home-cooked meal and my auntie’s ‘good wine’! That is really what I want as I prepare to study all summer for the bar exam!”
By Shea Stewart/Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
