Law360 Profiles Rubén Muñoz for ‘Breaking IP Barriers’ Series

Law360 has profiled Akin Gump intellectual property partner Rubén Muñoz in its latest installment of “Breaking IP Barriers”—an ongoing series of interviews with attorneys “who have been on the front lines to make IP a more inclusive area of law.”

The article notes that Muñoz, who grew up in Honduras, came to the United States for college with only a basic knowledge of English. Now, as partner in charge of Akin Gump’s Philadelphia office and co-chair of the firm’s Latinx Firmwide Resources Group (FRG), he uses his experience to encourage more Latino attorneys “to thrive in IP.”

Muñoz spoke about how he first got involved in intellectual property, describing a path that combined his early work in sciences and engineering at Ford Motor Co. with his interest in going to law school. While he had a “certain shyness at the beginning” for speaking a foreign language, he stated that “the language of physics and math was universal in a way.”

Despite being the only person from Latin America while doing his graduate research and then in his department at Ford, Muñoz said he didn’t see this as an impediment to doing the work he was supposed to do. Instead, he said, “working with people that are highly accomplished regardless of background is something that drives [him].”

Muñoz then spoke about some of the work that Akin Gump’s Latinx FRG does, shared his thoughts on how law firms can make Latinx attorneys feel more included and offered some advice for younger Latinx attorneys. He suggested not being afraid “to forge a path never before traveled” and also trusting one’s internal compass—both of which, he said, led him from a fulfilling engineering career to becoming a lawyer.