Transitioning into IP from science

One of the first decisions you should probably make is to decide whether you want to be a patent attorney or a patent agent - being a patent attorney obviously involves going to, graduating from, and passing a state bar here in the US.

A second decision you probably want to decide is whether this is the type of work you would really like to do - patents are all about writing patent applications, analyzing documents to determine, for example, what a client's invention truly is, as well as, during patent prosecution, how the claimed invention differs from prior patents or literature references cited by examiners.
If your skills are strong in these areas, and this type of work appeals to you, then by all means pursue a career in patents.

I echo the comments posted by Steven. I made this same transition about eight years ago. My background is in biotech and pharma and I switched to patents as a technical assistant to aid attorneys in drafting applications, understand certain technologies, freedom-to-operate searches, patentability searches, etc. I don't know what your background is but I am sure that it is valuable to patent practitioners that work in your field. You can always go to law school after you make the switch if you determine you would like to be a patent attorney.

I would recommend getting some practical experience with the patent law field BEFORE signing up to go to law school, to make sure that a career in patents is right for you. There are at least two good ways to do this:
1) Apply for a job with the USPTO as a patent examiner. Some of the most capable patent prosecution attorneys I've met started off as USPTO examiners. You will really become fluent in the patent prosecution process this way, and then in a few years you can decide to go into private practice as, either directly a patent agent or else by going to law school and becoming an attorney
2) Second option would be to take and pass patent bar and get a job as a patent agent with an IP law firm. If it works out well, you can then go on and apply to law school (if you feel it necessary) and become an attorney.
Either of these two paths will allow you to be sure patents is a good fit for you BEFORE you get yourself on the hook for an expensive legal education. Good luck!

While obtaining my PhD in biomolecular chemistry, I realized that patents were unrecognized by most researchers as a source of critical information. As I became more interested in Intellectual Property, I decided to start to take free and for-fee patent search webinars and courses to validate my interest and quickly discovered the wealth of opportunities available by combining my technical background with IP law. I was fortunate to obtain a patent editor position with Chemical Abstracts, which allowed me to identify and pursue new products and services not yet available to corporate and firm practitioners. For example, I headed a team to introduce a biopolymer sequence database comprising sequences identified only in patents. Due to this idea, I was approached to be a patent liasion/technical analyst/searcher for a multinational pharmaceutical company. Within a year, I became a patent agent and due to my expertise (I keep up technically and legally), the company requested I attend law school at night (they paid tuition, books, etc) as long I continued to work full time. I warn you it will not be easy (I worked from 6:30 am to 4:00 pm) and went 4 nights a week to law school from 6pm to 10 pm arriving home at midnight. My patent attorney career spanned 20 satisfying years. I now work as an independent consultant in IP strategy to apply my specialized genetic engineering knowledge to shape, optimize, and merge IP under the America Invents Act with new business models needed by traditional pharma, newly formed innovative companies, tech transfer offices, venture capital firms, etc.