This is the 104th article in Bears Doing Big Things, a weekly column celebrating the stories of notable M-A alumni.
From running Division 1 cross country to building new software while studying for the LSAT, Kevin Conrad ’16 has always been driven and resourceful.
Raised in Menlo Park, Conrad’s interest in science and technology began early. “My buddies and I were all really excited by the tech challenge at the Tech Museum in San Jose. That was a big deal for us every year,” he said.
At M-A, Conrad was deeply involved in clubs and extracurricular activities. He ran on the cross country and track teams, competed in speech and debate, and served as treasurer of the Donut Club, a student organization that sold donuts at lunch and donated their profits to Second Harvest Food Bank. “Under my regime, we got a bank account at Wells Fargo instead of just keeping the $15,000 we made in quarters,” he said.
Conrad valued the relationships he formed on the cross country team. “There’s a lot of pain in cross country, but when you’re around a group of people all striving to do the same thing, and you’re all in pain every day, you feel a sense of camaraderie,” he said. “It’s just kind of baked into the sport.”
Injured during his senior year, Conrad switched from track to the swim team to recover from a torn plantar fascia. “They never actually let me race because I sucked, but I had a great time on the swim team,” he said. “I am really thankful to the people on the swim team for welcoming me in.”
Conrad enjoyed taking AP European History with John Florio. “That was the greatest and hardest class I’ve ever taken–including the classes I took all of undergrad, and law school,” he said.
Although the class was demanding and rigorous, it proved to be rewarding. “Six times during the course of the year we had mini-units on the art of the period, where we were responsible for memorizing the names, artists, year of creation, and current location for different works of art. On top of that memorization, we were also responsible for an art history paper. While it might sound silly and ridiculous—and in some sense it totally was—it was about the challenge,” Conrad explained.
Conrad also discovered his love for philosophy at M-A. “One of my favorite parts of English classes was when we read philosopher writings, and learned a little about the philosophy of art and literature,” he said. “We talked a little bit about philosophy when we were reading King Lear. I got super into that and it made me want to study philosophy.”
After graduating from M-A, Conrad ran Division 1 cross country at Colgate University, where he majored in both philosophy and computer science. Conrad’s choice to major in computer science was driven more by practical reasons than a fervor for the subject. “I just sold out, like everyone else in the Bay Area, and studied computer science because I wasn’t sure if philosophy would pay the bills. At the time, all of my friends were doing computer science,” he explained.
Conrad was also passionate about law, which took root even earlier. During his freshman year at M-A, Conrad read a book featuring biographies of scientists. “Albert Einstein, at one point in his career, worked in a patent office in Switzerland, which is when he started developing his theory of relativity,” he said. “He was a patent examiner—that was when I found out what patents were, and I got interested in that.”
The summer before graduating from Colgate. Conrad worked as a clerk at Jorgenson, Siegel, McClure & Flegel LLP (JSMF) while studying for the LSAT. To manage his time more efficiently, he built a software program that automated his data entry tasks. “The most important thing I learned was how to be a self starter. Look at your job and try to figure out process improvements that can help you go from being someone who just focuses on the day to day, to someone who thinks about their job holistically and figures out what aspects of their job that they can improve every day,” Conrad said. “Since that job, I try to take a very critical view of my practice and look at what personal elements I can improve.”
In 2021, following his time at JSMF, Conrad began law school at UCLA. Following his first year there, he interned at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP—the firm where he now works full-time. After three summers there and passing the bar exam, Conrad became an Associate Attorney practicing patent prosecution law, helping developers apply for patents for their products.
His current role lets him engage with innovation at its earliest stages. “It’s fun to meet with the game developers and see what they think is important, and what they’ve been working on,” Conrad said. A fan of both video games and AI, he enjoys the intersection of law and cutting-edge tech.
He also appreciates the flexibility that his position provides. “I tend to come into the office four or five days a week, but some people only come two or three days,” Conrad said. “You can do it from home—or anywhere, honestly.”
“One of my favorite parts about my practice is that the firm has a pretty big commitment to pro bono. I do a lot of immigration and asylum work, and I can help people fleeing political persecution in Russia or gang violence in Central America,” Conrad said. “I try to help them navigate the extremely complex American immigration system at a time when it’s getting really, really hard.”
Conrad’s advice to current M-A students: “Don’t be too forward-focused. There’s going to be a lot of time to study for standardized tests and prepare for future career paths and get your college applications squared away—I don’t remember any of that. What I do remember is the time I spent with my friends. Take it a year at a time. Get involved. You don’t necessarily need to be so ruthlessly forward-focused.”
To those interested in pursuing law: “Try to find a starter-style job available at law firms. Do it for six months or a year, and look at what attorneys do every day. Then, figure out if it’s something that you would want to do every day. There are a lot of lawyers who probably shouldn’t have become lawyers because they didn’t ever really want to be lawyers. They just wanted a prestigious career.”
