Hartman Global Intellectual Property (IP) Law welcomed Alanna Wade to its legal team in April. She brings a diverse array of cross-industry experiences and a passion for helping clients protect their IP rights.
Wade’s journey to Hartman Global was anything but straightforward. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be an attorney but took a longer, unconventional route to get there. She enrolled at Purdue University in 2011 and started working on two degrees. First, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2016. Her second, a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering, took a bit longer. She finished it in 2024 – after spending years as a commercial diver, paralegal, social media director, AI specialist, and earning her Juris Doctor in IP law.
“I think it took me a little bit longer than most people who take the straight track,” she said. “I wanted to put myself through college.”
She spent years as an underwater welder, which provided both income and hands-on engineering experience. She finally started law school in 2018, attending the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law, studying both IP law and criminal defense. During her studies, she worked a number of jobs at different law firms and gained experience in various legal fields, but her mind was set on IP law.
“It’s always been my ultimate goal. Everything I was doing was either something I had to take care of on my way to being an attorney or something I had to do to become an attorney,” she said. “One way or another, I knew that life wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t get to do this. I just love any type of new technology or invention, especially with all the new AI developments. I want to see what’s at the forefront of technology.”
Once she finished law school, two global flashpoints caught her attention before she could take the bar exam – the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I had a friend stuck in Afghanistan and joined up with some Special Forces groups to do some of the extractions,” Wade said. “I helped him and his family get out of the country, and then the Russia-Ukraine war happened, and I did a very similar job involving that.”
Having helped where she could, Wade moved on to pass the bar exam and is now waiting to be sworn in before officially becoming an IP attorney. Her responsibilities at Hartman Global are broad and she plans to learn as much as she can from its founders, Domenica and Gary Hartman.
“I really want to learn everything from the ground up,” Wade said. “A lot of people will come to a firm to fill a specific role and that’s what they’ll do and it’s all they want to know. I told the Hartmans that I wanted to know everything there was to know, I want to be able to take a case from the first consultation to the very end. That’s my goal. Whether it’s patents, copyrights, or trademarks, I want to know it all and they’re giving me that opportunity.”
In just these first months with the firm, Wade is consistently impressed with the Hartmans’ approach to IP law and their commitment to education.
“It’s sincerely the best law firm I’ve ever worked for,” she said. “Until now, I’ve never worked with an attorney who I could really go to and just ask questions any time of the day. Domenica Hartman is always available to me at any time of the day, she’ll tell me to call, text, email, or come to her office about anything. Both of them are just so understanding and willing to discuss anything. They’ll talk about black letter law, the theory behind it, what might be happening in the future, down to the most basic filing questions like if I input the right date. I swear, if Domenica wasn’t an attorney she’d have been an amazing college professor. Teaching just seems to come naturally to her.”
Once sworn in, Wade is looking forward to meeting more clients and helping them navigate the challenges of IP Law.
“This job gives me the opportunity to speak with people doing all different kinds of work,” she said. “I can speak with a wide variety of people who are developing the things that we’re going to see in the coming years, and that’s amazing.”
To learn more about Hartman Global IP Law and its team of experts, visit hartmanglobal-ip.com.
