by Mark Magyar
My summer internship at Clocktower Law seemed to be over in an instant. Still, without a doubt, my seven-week stretch brought me valuable knowledge and experience to help aid the start of my legal career.
However, before I begin to dive into the details of my experience, I want to express my utmost gratitude to Erik Heels, Mary Keele, and Mike Bartley for so graciously welcoming me into the Clocktower family. The tight-knit dynamic of the firm made it a very down-to-earth experience where everyone was so kind and willing to let me sit in on their work process. Beyond my assigned projects, I was given the opportunity to observe client meetings focused on intellectual property strategy as well as participate in firm docket meetings, where I gained firsthand insight into how deadlines, filings, and client priorities are managed in practice. I am very thankful for all the lessons the internship had to offer and all the people who facilitated my growth.
Now, with that said, I would like to discuss the various projects I contributed to while at Clocktower.
The first project I worked on was redesigning Clocktower’s website using WordPress. The goal was to revamp the old format to a more modern style while sticking closely to its previous look. The process was a bit arduous at times, but as time went on, the interface of WordPress naturally became more intuitive. However, as I’m not a web designer, the first couple of weeks definitely came with a learning curve. Features of the redesigned website included a rotating logo design that shuffles the logos of select clients of Clocktower, a hero image of the Village Works building, a drop-down menu bar, and AI-edited texts of Erik’s writing. Overall, the website turned out to be visually appealing without taking away from the IP information. Although adjusting to WordPress was difficult at the beginning, the project ultimately came together quite seamlessly.
My second assignment was the Clocktower Client Trademark Project, which entailed researching all 125 clients of the firm for their trademarkable property listed on their website. This project took up the majority of my effort during my internship and forced me to sharpen my Excel skills. The Excel spreadsheet eventually grew to over 1,000 cells, each containing trademarkable information tied to a specific client. Completing it required a careful balance of research and organization: I had to comb through client websites, identify potential trademarks, and document them with precision. Along the way, I taught myself Excel codes and functions to streamline the process, such as text concatenation and conditional formatting, which ensured that the sheet remained both thorough and easy to navigate. It was a detailed and challenging assignment, but also one that gave me confidence in both my research abilities and my capacity to handle large-scale data projects.
Another major task I contributed to was experimenting with AI headshot generation through the platform HeadshotPro. With the exponential growth of Artificial Intelligence in the past couple of years, it’s no surprise that it’s beginning to creep into how people do business in the corporate world and beyond. At Clocktower, we started experimenting with ways to put AI to use, and my role was to explore one of those possibilities. I was tasked with using HeadshotPro to generate professional-grade portraits for everyone at Clocktower. It may seem like a small way of using AI, but just like anything else, you have to start somewhere.
In my experience with HeadshotPro, I found the interface intuitive and user-friendly. The platform allows each participant to upload 15 photos of themselves, from which the AI then generates roughly 80 to 100 headshots. Honestly, the hardest part wasn’t picking backgrounds or clothing–it was simply coming up with 15 usable photos. In my case, the quick fix was snapping a batch of selfies on the spot, since the AI doesn’t mind where the images come from. Once submitted, HeadshotPro takes about two hours to process each set of images. The results varied widely in quality–some were strong “keepers,” while others were clear “duds.” In fact, in a few cases, the AI even managed to make me look like a distant relative I had never met. Despite these quirks, the project was a great way to dip into how AI tools can supplement professional branding, and the results were ultimately shared in one of Clocktower’s “17 Seconds” newsletters.
I also spent a considerable amount of time editing Erik Heels’s past writings with the assistance of ChatGPT. Erik often says that 17% is the most random number – something he picked up during his days at MIT – so naturally, my assignment was to shorten his archived articles by exactly 17%. The process was straightforward but rewarding: I would copy his original article, send it through an AI editor to trim it down to the precise length, and then carefully review the result to make sure nothing essential was lost. Once I had a clean 17% shorter version, I posted it as a comment on the original article’s page on the Clocktower website, essentially presenting it as a revision for readers. Though the work might sound repetitive, it gave me a chance to refine my eye for editing and to appreciate the balance between conciseness and substance in professional writing.
Overall, my time at Clocktower was both challenging and rewarding, offering me a chance to learn new technical skills, contribute to meaningful projects, and gain insight into the practice of intellectual property law. More than anything, the internship reinforced my excitement about pursuing a legal career and showed me the value of creativity, adaptability, and precision in this field. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be part of the Clocktower team and will carry these lessons with me as I take the next steps in my academic and professional journey.
Related Posts
- * How To Create AI Photos With HeadshotPro by Mark Magyar (2025-08-17)
This Is Our “17 Seconds” Newsletter #135: 17 Seconds = Useful Info Quickly. - * Clocktower Welcomes Summer Intern Mark Magyar (2025-07-17)
This Is Our “17 Seconds” Newsletter #134: 17 Seconds = Useful Info Quickly. - * 17 Is The Most Random Number (2020-01-17)
The Most Random Number Is 17.
ABOUT MARK MAGYAR: Mark Magyar grew up and lives in Acton, Massachusetts. Mark is currently in the process of transferring from the University of Rochester to another university due to unforeseen circumstances. In his 2 year tenure at UR, he pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Political Science. At the University of Rochester, Mark competed collegiately on the Track and Field team at the D3 level. He specialized in sprinting/hurdling, competing in the 60m hurdles, 110m hurdles, and 400m hurdles. While Mark takes the semester off, he is looking for potential job opportunities to help aid his career. After university, Mark plans on attending law school to become a lawyer specializing in competition law. His internship at Clocktower serves as his first real opportunity to take what he has learned in university and apply it to his career. Outside the work environment, Mark enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, and staying active by training for track.
