Evan Preta*
Primary Areas of Practice
Overview
Evan Preta assists attorneys in the firm’s prosecution of patent applications involving artificial intelligence, cloud computing, multimedia encoding, wireless networking, telecommunications, and related technologies. He is skilled at analyzing USPTO actions to support prosecution strategy that best serves a client’s interests, and works closely with attorneys in drafting patent applications, responses to Office Actions, and appeal briefs.
Evan brings a genuine curiosity about emerging technology to his work—he stays current on developments in 5G/6G and AI largely because the subject interests him personally, not just professionally. That interest, paired with an exacting attention to precision in language, serves him well in a field where small changes in claim wording can significantly alter the scope of what a client actually owns.
Evan recently passed the USPTO registration examination and is a registered patent agent. He is pursuing formal legal studies in the Washington, D.C. area, concentrating in intellectual property law, with the goal of eventually becoming a patent attorney.
Evan's path to IP law began at Virginia Tech, where he earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, with a specialization in Controls, Robotics, & Autonomy and a sub-focus in Control Systems and Operations for Electric Vehicles. While exploring career paths during his studies, IP law quickly stood out as a natural fit. He first joined Rothwell Figg as an intern in 2025.
Beyond his coursework, Evan served as a Propulsion and Controls team member on Virginia Tech's EcoCAR team, worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant for Signals & Systems, and interned at FTS International, where he developed algorithms for UAV search optimization integrated with machine learning object detection. He holds the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification, among others.
Colleagues and mentors have consistently been struck by Evan’s tenacity: a former senior design advisor once remarked that he had never worked with a student more inclined to make his case.
*Not admitted to the D.C. Bar
Practices
Education
B.S., Electrical Engineering, Virginia Tech (summa cum laude)