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Now a second-year student at the University of San Diego School of Law, Pendergrass, 26, also works as a patent agent at Cooley Godward Kronish, LLP, where he expects to practice after law school. Having selected the firm in large part based on their commitment to pro bono work in the community, Pendergrass plans to do pro bono legal work in addition to practicing patent law.
"It's always been a concern of mine to have an opportunity to give back," Pendergrass said.
According to Pendergrass, volunteer work was modeled often and early in his family. When he participated in Habitat for Humanity in grade school, it was at his mother's urging, and they participated together, building a home for a working mother and her children. In high school, Pendergrass was a Husky Ambassador, giving speeches to Seattle-area high schools and taking telephone calls from high school students. He also volunteered for the Kids Invest Toys day camp.
Citing his family, friends, and colleagues as role models, Pendergrass also admires various historical figures who promoted human dignity and respect for others along with individual social responsibility. Community outreach groups enable the less fortunate to eventually enable themselves and to let them know that others care about them, he said.
Another role model for Pendergrass is his 96-year-old grandmother who volunteers at the local retirement community in her hometown of Colfax, WA.
"The funny thing is, she enjoys it," Pendergrass said. "She is the one who should be served, and she is doing the serving. She just enjoys it."
"Volunteering was just always apparent in my family," he added. "My mother and father opened my eyes to other opportunities outside of our middle-class life."
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"I enjoy helping them demystify the challenges they face," he said. "I think it's important to help younger people advance their lives in positive directions—it's beneficial to society at large to promote obtainable and satisfying achievement."
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Planning to practice intellectual property/patent law after graduation, Pendergrass chose those areas of law because of what he terms the "convergence of technology, business, and law."
"Patent law is a great fit," he said. "IP/patent attorneys are continuously introduced to cutting-edge technology. They assist clients in achieving commercial success by obtaining and managing their IP. They enable clients to make legal decisions."
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