We are required by our regulator (the SRA) to publish certain diversity statistics for our firm, which appear below. Data published in two previous years can also be found on this website.
Two important caveats:
(1) due to the small size of our firm (11 lawyers at the time the latest data was collected), the data is of limited statistical value. Since the data was collected, we have recruited additional fee-earning staff whose data would alter the report.
(2) in view of the small numbers of people who responded to the survey (10), we have not published the data in full, particularly where the information seemed very sensitive or might identify individuals.
An important measure of diversity is whether diversity extends to senior levels within an organisation. Although not specifically identified in the SRA statistics, in fact 2 of our 5 partners are female, and 3 (including the founder, Mark Anderson) are male.
Our summary diversity data, as reported to us by our staff, is as follows:
Anderson Law LLP would like to recruit another IP/commercial lawyer. Our preference is for someone in the 2-5 years PQE range, but we would consider applications from people outside this band.
Our workload has increased steadily in the 24 years since Anderson & Company (our predecessor firm, until we converted to an LLP in 2011) was formed. We now employ 10 lawyers, and we are ready to increase this to 11. Most of our work is non-contentious, including drafting and negotiating IP-related agreements. We also have some regulatory work and a small amount of litigation. Our clients are mostly a mixture of technology-based companies and universities, in the UK and overseas.
Our firm is the only small firm to be recommended in Chambers UK Directory as a national leader for life-science transactions, and as a national leader outside London for IP. We are highly recommended by IAM Patent 1000.
If you are interested in doing high-quality work in a small-firm environment, please let us know. Our headquarters are in South Oxfordshire, but we would consider someone who wants to make London their main base. Please contact mark@andlaw.eu, enclosing a CV and a letter indicating why you think you would be a good candidate for our firm.
The start of April 2018 marked the official launch of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), an amalgamation of the seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England. With this, UK universities’ ability to turn research into innovation is once again under the spotlight.
This is an important issue. After all, some highly successful companies can trace their origins to UK university research. However, nobody has really scrutinised the way the system works before. We felt the time was ripe for that to change, especially with the government’s industrial strategy recognising the need for a benchmark of how well universities commercialise the results of their research.
So, a few months ago, Anderson Law commissioned research into the relationship between the sources of funding for academic research, and successful commercialisation of the research. The attached report summarises the results of that work – see the link at the end of this article.
We think the findings offer real food for thought. Overall, it’s a positive picture. Spinouts from UK universities are thriving; nine out of ten spinouts which have received private investment between 2011 and 2015 have survived. Among start-ups on the whole, only two in ten survive beyond their fifth year.
We also found that the number of spinouts from UK universities is on the increase and, with this, so is the amount of investment into them from private investors. But we believe more should be done.
As UKRI begins its work, we expect that the commercialisation of research from UK universities will be a priority. We also think the government has a role to play too, giving universities a clear policy steer on their role as innovators, as part of a national strategy for the commercialisation of research from UK universities.
I hope you find the report interesting. If you would like to discuss the findings further, please feel free to get in touch.
Periodically, we are required by our regulator, the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority, to collect and publish diversity data on our staff. There is an exception to the obligation to publish if it might identify individuals, and as a small firm we have taken the decision to omit certain details.
Staff are invited, but not required, to complete the diversity questionnaire. Of our 11 lawyers (including 3 partners), 10 completed the diversity questionnaire, and the following statistics are based on their replies. Where a member of staff has not replied to a question or has indicated that they preferred not to respond, their response to that question is omitted from the statistics below
The results of our previous diversity-statistic exercise, in 2015, were published on this website here.
The key diversity statistics for our firm in 2017 are:
We are delighted to announce that our Associate, AnnMarie Humphries, has been promoted to Associate Partner with immediate effect.
AnnMarie joined us as a trainee solicitor in 2011, after 9 years working as a graduate trainee and then a commercial manager at Unilever. She has a masters degree in engineering from the University of Bath. She re-qualified as a solicitor early in 2013.
AnnMarie has broad experience of working with our high-tech, life-science and university clients on commercial and intellectual property matters. She has developed a particular specialism working with the gaming and gambling sector, including dealing with their commercial transactions and regulatory issues. Her earlier experience of commercial management, including instructing external lawyers, gives her invaluable insights, which our clients have welcomed.
We are delighted to recognise AnnMarie’s contribution to the firm through this new job title.
For further information, please contact Mark Anderson, Managing Partner, on 01865 858 878 or via enquires@andlaw.eu
Anderson Law joined Twitter on #SocialMediaDay! Follow us for the latest news on upcoming &Law events @AndLawLLP.
Don’t forget, you can also subscribe to our blog at ipdraughts.com or get in contact with us at enquires@andlaw.eu.
Francis Davey has joined Anderson Law as a barrister and an associate.
Francis was a computer scientist for 12 years until 2002. He went on to study law and began practice as a barrister in 2004.
He continues to lecture as part of the LLM course at Strathclyde University and sit as a judge in property tribunals.
In his spare time, Francis maintains his skills as a computer scientist and Python code.
To find out more about Francis, please view his bio page here.
Agnieszka Wozniak, or Aga for short, has joined Anderson Law as a trainee solicitor.
Aga attained a masters of law in Poland and went on to convert to the law of England and Wales in 2008. She worked as a contracts officer at the University of Warwick for over five years before joining Anderson Law.
During Aga’s first few months at Anderson Law she took the opportunity to be a judge’s marshal at the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court in London, during the trial of a passing-off case.
In her free time, Aga enjoys climbing, sailing or cycling with her family.
To find out more about Aga, please view her bio page here.
Chambers UK Directory 2016 was published last week. As in recent years, Anderson Law LLP is recommended for both intellectual property and life sciences work. Chambers reports some very kind comments from clients and peers.
Intellectual property
Chambers recommends firms for IP on a regional basis. We feature in the Thames Valley section.
In the firm rankings, Anderson Law LLP is ranked in the top band (band 1). Three of our lawyers feature in the individual rankings, the largest number from any of the recommended firms. Mark is ranked in band 1, Stephen in band 2, and Paul in band 3.
Client quotes about the firm:
“A high-quality service generally and all of their advice is very pragmatic and incisive.”
“They provide superior advice and service.”
Comments about our individual lawyers:
Mark Anderson is extremely well known for his representation of universities and research and development companies in commercial IP agreements of all kinds. Clients say: “His directness, adaptability and speed are genuinely impressive.”
The “brilliant” Paul Maclennan is a non-contentious IP specialist noted for his knowledge of the life sciences sector. His areas of focus include structuring collaboration agreements and IP exploitation matters including licensing agreements.
Stephen Brett acts for universities and medical research organisations on patent protection and the commercial exploitation of IP rights. Sources report: “He has a commercial angle to his advice and doesn’t approach matters from a purely legal perspective.”
Life sciences
Chambers recommends life science lawyers on a national, rather than a regional, basis. In the sub-category of transactional lawyers, Anderson Law is ranked in band 3, while Mark Anderson is individually ranked in band 2.
Chambers quotes clients’ comments about our firm as follows:
“Does great work for universities and small life sciences companies.”
“Excellent on licensing.”
They comment about Mark as an individual as follows:
Mark Anderson is the firm’s founding partner and is an extremely well-regarded expert on the drafting and negotiation of agreements to bring about the fruit of cutting-edge research. He is, in the words of one senior market source, “absolutely brilliant.”
Anderson Law LLP is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The SRA requires regulated firms to collect diversity data from their employees (though the employees are not required to provide that data), and to publish the data that is collected, or a summary of it.
As Anderson Law is a small firm, publishing full details runs the risk of disclosing personal data about individuals. Therefore we have decided to publish a selected summary in relation to the lawyers who provided data to us early in 2015. Please note that we have recruited further staff since the survey was conducted.
The key diversity statistics are:
Christopher Pollard has joined Anderson Law as a trainee solicitor.
Christopher graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in Environmental Science. There he researched various areas including: the effects of bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions and the hazard they pose to the environment; the feasibility of retrofitting domestic property to reach UK carbon reduction targets; and the vulnerability of permafrost and the implications for the global cycle (following research conducted in the Arctic Circle).
Christopher went on to convert to law and qualify as a barrister. Since then he worked in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Dispute Resolution department as a paralegal where he was involved in various contentious and non-contentious work including: patent disputes; WIPO complaints; international arbitrations; and disputes involving medical equipment.
Christopher joined us in January 2015 and hopes to qualify in October 2016.
To find out more about Christopher, please view his bio page here.
We are delighted to announce that the Law Society of England and Wales – the professional body for English solicitors – has appointed Mark as the next Chairman of its Intellectual Property Committee (IPLC). The appointment takes effect from 1 September 2015 and continues for 3 years.
Mark has been a member of the IPLC for the last 10 years. The IPLC makes representations on matters affecting IP law and practice. Recent projects of note include its 9 year campaign to revise the law on “threats” in IP legislation, which resulted in the Law Commission researching and reporting on the topic, and the UK Government recently declaring that it intends to implement most of the Law Commission’s recommendations.
The IPLC lobbied hard on bringing the Unified Patent court to the UK, and was delighted when the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, personally negotiated to have the life sciences part of the central division of the court located in the UK.
Non-contentious IP also features in the IPLC’s work, and Mark led a team that prepared submissions to the European Commission on what became the 2014 Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation.