[dmoy]

For the lawyer side:

My dad did a transition from Mech E to patent lawyer, but super early in his career. Basically to the point where he didn't work much professionally as a mechanical engineer. My understanding is it's very different, but he really likes patent law. It requires a much greater interest in digging through legal history, and an even greater emphasis on writing than engineering does.

From my perspective (working as an engineer, growing up hearing everything about patent law):

If you like the building stuff part, stick with engineering.

If you like the debugging / analysis / almost-audit-like side of tech, and aren't scared by a giant reel of red tape (and as mentioned before like history digging and writing), then maybe patent law would be for you.

If you get good enough, you may be able to affect changes in the red tape even.

I can't really say much about the patent agent side.