Research Assistantships

Greg R. Vetter, Univ. of Houston Law Center

Current Research Assistant Positions Available

I seek applications from students interested in working on intellectual property and computer law topics. Specifically, the likely subjects for my research over the next year are: (1) patent law to support my authorship of the patent law section of a forthcoming IP Survey casebook; (2) free and open source software and intellectual property as applied to software to support my authorship of a book review; and (3) software as an unpredictable art under patent law to support a potential article on that topic.

I am currently in need of several research assistants. Ideally, applicants are forthcoming 2Ls who can provide some effort over the summer of 2009 and through the 2009-10 academic year. The intention is that there would be a continuing engagement during the applicant's 3L year.

The typical arrangement for my research assistants is to work for one hour of credit at a time, which equates to sixty hours of actual research activity. There is some flexibility as to when the hours and the credit are arranged.

I would appreciate receiving your application, even if you cannot give effort during the summer of 2009 as recited above. I will review it carefully and keep it on file for future periods if it doesn't lead to an engagement for my current openings.

Research Assistantships

This page provides information for University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) students interested in applying for a research assistant opportunity with me.

I enjoy working with students in Directed Research engagements. I appreciate the contribution their efforts make to my scholarship. My philosophy is to make the experience beneficial for both of us. The close working relationship allows mentoring and professional acquaintance to grow beyond that of the class environment, which contributes to a mutually satisfying experience.

An overview of my practices is as follows. I typically meet with research assistants about once every several weeks. I usually provide written instructions for large projects, but provide additional requests and feedback during our meetings or via email. I often have research assistants write memoranda summarizing their research findings. Among other benefits, this allows me, if desired by the student, to evaluate the student's writing and provide feedback. This is also useful later if the student requests that I act as their recommender. To monitor the research, I supply a simple spreadsheet for students to record their research time for submittal to me. This also creates a record to meet the Directed Research course requirements for earning credit. The research topics are seasonal - they depend on my current project and on where I am in the life-cycle of that project. At the start of a new Directed Research engagement, I supply a detailed document (around a dozen pages) describing these and other practices and procedures. I do this because it is important to me that the student have clear notice of how I would like to operate the engagement and what our joint expectations should be.

Below you will find a document describing how to apply. If you are interested, I hope that you will do so. I would enjoy the opportunity to meet you via the application process.

How to Apply and My Requirements

This document describes how to apply and the course of the application process.

UHLC Documents related to Directed Research

Research assistantships occur under the courses for Directed Research Assistance: 5199, 5299 and 5399; for one, two or three hours of credit respectively. As a result, there are various administrative requirements to establish a student for Directed Research Assistance.

Students should review the following excerpt from the UHLC Student Handbook:

Student Handbook Excerpts Related to Research Assistantships

Students should also review the petition required to register for Directed Research (however, there is no need to complete the petition until such a time when the student has secured a research assistantship with me):

Directed Research Petition

Of particular import is the Student Handbook requirement that one hour of Directed Research Assistance translates into sixty hours of actual time. Students should consider this in evaluating the number of Directed Research credit hours to which they aspire.