Yasmin Ghassab (’14) Joins Holland & Knight

The Class of 2014 graduate got her dream job as an associate in the intellectual property group.

Yasmin Ghassab (’14) can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a lawyer. She still keeps a few second grade self-portraits, in which she depicted herself standing in front of a judge with a gavel in her hand. Even after she discovered that, as a lawyer, she wouldn’t get to wield the gavel, her abiding passion for the law remained undiminished.

Ghassab received her undergraduate degree in economics from Ohio State University. When the time came to choose a law school, Ghassab says that the professors highlighted in BU Law’s admissions packet were the deciding factor for her. “Choosing based on the professors turned out to be a great decision,” she says. “I haven’t had a single professor at BU Law who didn’t care about my success both inside and outside the classroom.”

As a law student, Ghassab was an active leader. She served as vice-president of the Middle-Eastern and Southeast Asian Law Students Association, co-president of OutLaw, a student group for LGBTQ and allied students, and co-director of the Be Yourself Diversity Orientation.

Ghassab’s early interest in Intellectual Property (IP) law was fostered and encouraged through her experiences in BU Law’s top-ranked IP program. She found Professor Stacey Dogan’s IP and the Internet course to be particularly influential. “I had always had a general interest in IP,” she says, “but she was the first to get me truly excited about the field. I looked forward to her class every week. She organized her syllabus in a way that made every topic both interesting and approachable.” In addition, she says, “classes like Federal Civil Practice and Ethical Depositions were very useful for me, and have been directly applicable to the work I’ve done at Holland & Knight.”

While at BU Law, Ghassab also served as an articles editor for the American Journal of Law and Medicine (AJLM). That experience has come in useful in her first year as an associate. “In addition to writing my own briefs and motions, I do a lot of substantive and grammatical and stylistic editing for upper-level associates,” she says. “After serving as an articles editor for AJLM, editing has become second nature to me.”

However, it was her role in the student sketch comedy group, the Legal Follies, that she recalls as her favorite law school experience. The group provided her with a creative outlet, introduced her to a group of people who remain some of her closest friends, and she even credits it with improving her legal writing skills. “Learning how to write and perform in a way that maintains the audience’s attention is not a skill exclusive to comedic writing,” says Ghassab. In addition, her time in Follies helped to keep her grounded throughout the highs and lows of law school. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that joining the Legal Follies changed my life,” she says.

It was through another member of Follies that Ghassab met Holland & Knight’s recruiting coordinator. “I was immediately interested,” she recalls. “Holland & Knight has the kind of interesting work that most big law firms have, but with an emphasis on professional development and collegiality.”

The qualities that drew her to Holland & Knight have held true as she begins her career as an IP associate in the firm’s Boston office. “The partners provide great leadership,” she says, “and every associate and paralegal has gone out of his or her way to help me, whether it’s directing me to the right case law or the best place to get coffee.”

Although the firm is large, her practice group is small and specialized, giving her the opportunity to do far more than the research and document review that often makes up the experience of a first-year associate. “I’ve only been at Holland & Knight for a few months, and I’ve already drafted motions for summary judgment, worked on expert reports, and met with witnesses.”

Ghassab finds that the substantive work she has been able to do at Holland & Knight confirms her decision that intellectual property law is the place for her. “With technology advancing at such a rapid pace, I’m always going to be learning something new,” she says. “I think that’s really exciting.”