A rosy future for IP law practice

Last week was the tenth outing of the IP Transactions course, held annually at the UCL Faculty of Laws. Over the last decade, we have taught several hundred lawyers, and had several score of teachers. Thanks to all who have contributed. Particular thanks to the 30 specialist lawyers who (together with IP Draughts) delivered this year’s outing:

John Hull, a visiting professor at KCL and formerly a partner with major London firms.

Matthew Warren, a partner at Bristows

Cerys Wyn Davies, a partner at Pinsent Mason

Molly Woods and Louise Johnson, respectively a partner and senior associate at Ashurst

Chris Bates, a partner at Ashurst

Gina Bicknell, a partner at Pinsent Mason

Mark Lubbock, a partner at EIP

Tim Worden, a partner at Goodwin

Ruth Arkley, a partner at Brown Rudnick

Sally Shorthose, a partner at Bird & Bird

Chris Shelley and Edmund Forey, respectively a partner and managing associate at Pennington Manches

Paul Maclennan and Stephen Brett, partners at Anderson Law

Louise Fullwood, a Legal Director at Pinsent Mason

Charles Kerrigan, Laura Collins and Isabel Neelands, respectively a partner and associates at CMS

Toby Crick and Faye Harrison, respectively a partner and senior associate at Bristows

Sam de Silva, a partner at CMS

Nabil Asaad and Tom Foster, senior associates at Taylor Wessing

John Enser, a partner at CMS

Tomos Jones, a senior associate at Reed Smith

Ruth Burstall, a Legal Director at Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Ed Swift, a senior associate at Baker McKenzie

Natalie Ellerby, former Counsel at Linklaters

Jeff Skinner, Teaching Fellow, Strategy & Entrepreneurship, London Business School, and former Commercial Director, UCL

IP Draughts would also like to thank this year’s students, who came from several countries to attend the course. They provided lots of questions and comments during the week, and this made the proceedings very interesting. IP Draughts left the course feeling that IP legal practice will be in good hands when these talented practitioners reach the top of their profession.

Particular thanks to a student from Finland who posted the following comment on LinkedIn yesterday:

Five days of studying IP transactions at UCL. Amazing speakers and many interesting lectures covering IP in M&A transactions, IP transactions in the life sciences and media industry, IT licensing, OSS and cloud deals, and so much more. I’m going home with a whole lot of new inspiration and ideas so beware team, I have a feeling that I will be talking about this course for a long time 😄

A big thanks to Mark Anderson, Lisa Penfold and UCL for arranging the course as well as to all speakers and the IP practitioners attending the course with me, it was great meeting you all and hope to see you soon again!☺️