Patent Pending for Lauren Grohowski ’26

Lauren Grohowski, a mechanical engineering major and first-year student at the University of Virginia School of Law, is already gaining experience as a future patent lawyer with her inventions — and even a provisional patent.

At the Law School, Grohowski, a Community Fellow, represents Section H on the First Year Council and serves as the Virginia Law Women’s 1L diversity, equity and inclusion representative. She is also a mentor with Legal Advisory Workshops for Undergraduate Students and works pro bono at the disAbility Law Center of Virginia.

The McLean, Virginia, native earned a bachelor’s degree at Vanderbilt University, double-majoring in mechanical engineering and communication of science and technology. She published two scientific papers as an undergraduate.

In our occasional series “Star Witness,” Grohowski discussed devices she built to help children with disabilities and how her father’s experience as a lawyer fueled her interest going into law.

Tell us something about your life before law school.

Ever since I was young, my parents instilled the importance of traveling in my siblings and me. They wanted us to feel like the world was accessible and that we could learn and understand other cultures. We traveled around Asia in 2013 and Eastern Europe in 2018. This past summer, my twin sister and I went on a six-week trip to Australia, Bali, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. My favorite parts were meeting up with our mom and other family in Vietnam, surfing in Bali, the street food in Japan and, in my humble opinion, how we became masters of public transportation!

Describe your most interesting experience as a mechanical engineering student.

In college, I got involved with and later ran an organization called Tikkun Olam Makers, or TOM. “Tikkun olam” are the Hebrew words for repairing the world, and TOM’s mission is to do that by making small differences in individual lives. TOM aims to build open-source solutions for daily struggles that people with disabilities face.

One project that stands out to me is one that my team made for Adam, an 8-year-old boy with quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy. Adam loved to swing when he got anxious, but he could not swing by himself. The family wanted something that would automatically swing Adam and would fit in their living room, so my team designed a mechanical swing with a lightweight metal frame that was easy to take apart and put back together, and we ultimately used a windshield wiper motor to produce the swinging motion of the chair. Some other projects we worked on included creating a modified syringe pump for a young boy who had clubbed hands and a feeding tube so that he could eat independently, and a modified recorder setup for a girl with a short arm so that she could cover all five holes with one hand.

Why law school?

I always had the idea that I wanted to go to law school. My dad, Bob Grohowski ’94, is a lawyer, and I just loved the way he spoke about the law. He did such a good job at explaining the issues he was dealing with in a way that I could understand as a kid without taking away from how interesting and complicated the problem was, and it seemed like every time we spoke, he was dealing with a new issue or a new angle on an old issue. I just thought that it was amazing he could have such a fluid profession where he was always doing something new or thinking about things in different ways, and that is what I wanted out of my life.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study in college, but I knew I could study anything and still go to law school, so I wanted to pick something that really interested me. I found a love for mechanical engineering from 3D printing, a biomimicry class and from the fact that I’d always loved knowing how things were built or creating them myself. So, going into Vanderbilt, I had an idea that I wanted to do patent law. I started talking to patent attorneys and even had the opportunity to work with the Tech Transfer office [which manages Vanderbilt’s intellectual property assets], and it just felt right! I knew law school was for me. When I got the call from UVA, I just cried tears of joy, and I knew that I was going to the right place.

What is your provisional patent?

In college, I worked in the Zelik Lab for Biomechanics and Assistive Technology. One of the projects that I worked on was an ankle exoskeleton. An exoskeleton is generally a rehabilitative device that will offload weight or strain that is placed onto your body, so they are typically used when doing heavy lifting or repetitive work for long periods of time. With running, the same type of repetitive load is placed on your body, which often leads to injuries in the knees, shins or ankles. We created a passive exoskeleton that would help long-distance runners with Achilles injuries continue to train without further injuring themselves.

What’s something your classmates don’t know about you?

I am a classically trained pianist of 16 years now, and at one point in time, I could solve a Rubik’s Cube in my right hand and play a left-hand-alone piece on piano simultaneously. It took about three minutes, but it was a cool party trick for those who stuck around to watch!

What do you want to do with your law degree?

I am planning on going into patent litigation — with a hint of prosecution — at Fish & Richardson starting next summer. I am extremely excited about the opportunity to work with technologies ranging from medical devices to electronics to children’s toys. Most of all, I’m excited to keep learning and becoming a better lawyer.