US Patent Attorney — Prosecution & Litigation
About the Role Mercor is partnering with a leading AI lab to train frontier models on high-quality legal reasoning data. We're hiring US patent attorneys with prosecution and/or litigation experience for a focused evaluation project. You'll review model-generated work product on…
- Field
- Law
- Where
- United States
- Commitment
- hourly
- Hours
- up to 20/week
- Asks for
- Licensed attorney
- Openings
- 6
- Posted
- 10 days ago
Pay data for your profession: Lawyer AI trainer jobs
How this pay compares
At $180/hr, this role pays more than 77% of the 157 open law roles with a listed pay range, above the median of $115.
Open law roles that ask for a licensed attorney have a median of $130/hr (110 roles).
Among platforms with 10 or more priced law roles, micro1 has the highest median ($135/hr across 54 roles) and Mercor the lowest ($110/hr across 15).
Mercor roles that closed since late October stayed listed a median of 39 days (136 roles). Mercor posted this one 10 days ago.
Computed from 2,746 open roles we track across Mercor, micro1, Handshake AI, Alignerr, Appen and OpenTrain AI, refreshed daily. Midpoints of listed ranges; “up to” ceilings are left out of medians.
What you would earn at this rate
Rate
$180/hr
Per week, before tax
$3,600
Per month, if the work is steady
$15,600
- Tax
- Contract pay arrives with no tax withheld. A US contractor at this rate and these hours would set aside about $3,944 a month for self-employment tax plus federal income tax at the 12% bracket (25%, before state tax). Outside the US, your own country's rules apply.
Assumes paid hours only; unpaid assessments, onboarding and gaps between projects lower the real figure. Full take-home calculator · Track what you actually earn
Open law roles on each platform
The same kind of work, priced on every platform we track, with the best-paid open role on each.
| Platform | Open | Median | Best-paid open role |
|---|---|---|---|
| micro1 | 54 | $135/hr | Domain Researcher, Legal$400k-800k/yr |
| OpenTrain AI | 79 | $120/hr | Civil Rights Attorney for Legal AI Evaluation$140-400/hr |
| Mercorthis role | 15 | $110/hr | Legal Rubric & Ground Truth Auditor (Licensed Attorney)$120-140/hr |
| Alignerr | 9 | $43/hr | Legal Expert: AI Legal Reasoning Review$75-95/hr |
| Handshake AI | 3 | up to $110/hr3 priced | Legal ProfessionalsUp to $150/hr |
“Up to” rows list only ceilings, so their median is a maximum, not comparable with the range midpoints above them.
All 160 open law roles →The full listing
As posted on Mercor. See the original
About the Role
Mercor is partnering with a leading AI lab to train frontier models on high-quality legal reasoning data. We're hiring US patent attorneys with prosecution and/or litigation experience for a focused evaluation project. You'll review model-generated work product on patent matters, judge its quality, and mark legal, technical, factual and citation errors directly in the materials.
What You'll Do
- Review patent-related outputs (prosecution and/or litigation work product) and assess their quality against defined dimensions
- Annotate inline, flagging legal, technical, factual, claim-construction and citation errors
- Provide clear, well-reasoned explanations for each judgment
- Complete all assigned reviews within the review window
- Attend a short onboarding session before kickoff
You're a Good Fit If You
- Are admitted to practice in at least one US state (active bar membership)
- Have 3+ years of US patent practice — patent prosecution (drafting/prosecuting applications before the USPTO) and/or patent litigation (infringement, validity, claim construction)
- For prosecution work: are registered to practice before the USPTO (patent bar, registration number)
- Hold a technical or scientific degree (engineering, computer science, life sciences, chemistry, physics or similar)
- Hold a J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school
- Write clearly and pay close attention to detail
Bonus Qualifications
- USPTO registration number (patent bar)
- Experience at an AmLaw 100 firm or a leading patent boutique
- Federal Circuit or district-court patent clerkship
- Prior data annotation, AI evaluation or legal-benchmark experience, including prior legal AI projects with Mercor
Role Highlights
- Time commitment: approximately 12–15 hours total, within a defined review window
- Immediately required
- You must complete all required reviews, as the project design depends on every attorney finishing the full set
From applying to your first payment on Mercor
- 1
Apply to this listing
Apply on Mercor with your resume.
- 2
AI interview
Take Mercor's recorded AI interview, about 20 minutes. A completed interview carries over to other listings that use the same one.
- 3
Work
Hourly work is counted in weeks that run Saturday to Friday.
- 4
First payment
Mercor pays each Wednesday around noon Pacific through Stripe (or Wise). Stripe holds a first payout for 7 days, and standard transfers take up to 5 business days to reach your bank.
Sources: Mercor talent docs: AI interview, Mercor talent docs: payments
Full Mercor profile: watch-outs and the public record →Pay history
Mercor has changed the listed pay once since Nov 1, 2026:
- Nov 2, 2026$110-125 → $180/hrraised
Across Mercor's law roles, the median listed pay was $105/hr on Nov 1, 2026 (18 roles) and is $110/hr as of Nov 11, 2026 (15 roles).
What workers report about Mercor
Anonymous reports from people who applied or worked there: whether they got work, what they were paid and how fast.
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