Heather Slotnick is the founder and managing partner of MLO, an intellectual property law firm based in San Diego, California. With a background in electrical engineering and more than 25 years of experience in IP law, she helps companies develop high-quality patent portfolios while reducing legal risk. MLO is a certified Women's Business Enterprise.
I asked Heather what led her to start her own firm.
"I thought it would be a solo practice," she told me. "I had been in-house for over 10 years, and before that, in a big law firm. I just wanted to regroup."
She came to that decision after a decade leading a major corporation's West Coast IP Office — managing a large team, overseeing complex patent portfolios, and handling due diligence for acquisitions and venture capital investments. The work was demanding and the travel was constant.
"I like to learn new things. I'm an early adopter," she said. "The management training was great for me. But once I was at the top, I felt like I was hitting my head against the ceiling. I just wanted to have my own little world."
Her original model was to act as a fractional IP strategist for small companies — sitting with them a day or two a week, helping them set budgets, prioritize their portfolios, and manage outside counsel. But her clients kept asking the same question: why can't you just do all of this?
"These small companies, they don't know what to prioritize, they don't know what a reasonable budget is, they don't even know if the people they're hiring can do the work," she said. "And so I was providing that service for them."
That insight became the foundation of the firm she built.
"We try to act quasi-in-house — really helping with the strategy, since it's usually smaller clients that are going for a boutique, and they need a little more hand-holding."
So she built the firm to do exactly that. Within a year, she hired her first employee — a friend who had been doing patent searching and wanted to start drafting patents. That friend is still with her, nearly 20 years later. Several others on the team have been there a decade or more. Heather finds people everywhere: a college friend who was ready to return to work, a fellow Girl Scout troop leader who turned out to be exceptional with numbers, a student she hired to scan files who became her office manager.
"I prefer to keep people happy," she said. "I just don't understand how these big firms churn through people. It's not what I like to do."
Understanding her people is something she invests in deliberately. She has taken enough personality tests over the years to know that her team of engineers tends to be detail-oriented and methodical — and that she is the opposite. Knowing that about each other, she says, changes everything.
"It's just easier to connect with people when you understand them better," she said.
That attentiveness shows up in how she coaches her team through stress. When one employee was getting sick repeatedly, she didn't just note the absences — she asked what was going on. He was exhausted from caring for his family and not sleeping.
"If you're on an airplane and the air masks come down, they say put the mask on yourself first before helping everyone else," she told him. "If you're sick, you can't help them." He's much better now.
What shapes how she leads at a firm-wide level is a commitment to feedback — in both directions. Every year, the entire team does a 360 review. Everyone reviews everyone else's work and provides constructive feedback. It's not easy, especially for new people who aren't used to it.
"I do a 360 review on everybody every year, and I try to get my employees to be open to feedback. Feedback can be tough for attorneys. Sometimes they take it a little personally. But I think everyone could do a better job if they're open to making their work product better."
Twenty years in, she has exactly that — and a team that has stayed to build it with her.
Are you a company looking for strategic IP counsel in San Diego? Connect with Heather Slotnick and check out MLO, a professional corporation.