Eleesia Hernandez ’28 Follows Her North Star to a Career in IP Law

At St. John’s Law, Eleesia Hernandez is pursuing a career in intellectual property (IP) law, guided by a North Star formed from the convergence of her curiosity about artificial intelligence (AI) governance and her undergraduate work in biochemistry.

Following that guidance, she helps lead the Law School’s AI and Digital Leadership Society as the student organization’s Director of Partnerships. “AI is reshaping the profession my classmates and I are about to enter, and I want to contribute to a campus space where we can explore this uncharted territory together,” she says. “The Society brings students, practitioners, and engineers together through practice-specific panel discussions on how AI is changing the legal profession. As Director of Partnerships, I help build relationships outside the school with legal tech companies, alumni, and other student groups to bring in speakers and help my classmates learn more about the industry.” 

In her leadership role, Eleesia draws on knowledge she gained this past summer, when she was selected to participate in the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) Intellectual Property Law Institute (IPLI). A joint initiative of HNBA and its Via Fund, IPLI is a highly selective, weeklong immersion program held annually in Washington, D.C. It was founded through a partnership between HNBA and Microsoft to address the underrepresentation of Hispanic attorneys in IP and technology law. 

“IPLI was one of the most valuable weeks of my legal education,” Eleesia says. “I spent it with about 30 law students from around the country who share my interest in IP and technology law. We visited the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.S. Copyright Office, heard oral arguments in patent cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and attended a legal writing workshop led by one of the Court’s judges. It was powerful to see Hispanic attorneys leading at every level of IP practice. Those role models make the journey of being the first lawyer in my family less daunting.”

IPLI was also an ideal launchpad for Eleesia’s summer internship at the software company MongoDB, where she strengthened her legal skills and developed her AI literacy by creating agentic workflows for the company’s legal team. “I published four agents to help the team move faster on repetitive, high-impact tasks,” she shares. “As I drafted legal memoranda, conducted legal research, and reviewed contracts, my managers encouraged me to integrate AI for greater efficiency. I saw firsthand the strengths and limitations of various AI tools.”

This semester, Eleesia is building on her summer experiences as she takes courses in Introduction to Intellectual Property and AI and Legal Ethics. She is also preparing for the patent bar, supported by an IPLI Patent Bar Scholarship that covers her test preparation and exam fees. Complementing the knowledge, skills, and credentials she is gaining are opportunities to engage with the wider IP community through the Law School’s Intellectual Property Law Center.

As she continues to follow her North Star, Eleesia looks forward to her future in IP law: “I’m interested in working on the regulatory side of AI. The patent bar, along with patent prosecution experience early on in my legal career, will deepen my experience with protecting innovation. Ultimately, I want to work in AI governance, particularly responsible AI, where questions about ethical use, inventorship, and patentability are still unsettled. I also want to give back the way the HNBA and my mentors have given to me, by helping more nontraditional STEM students see IP law as a career that is open to them.”