I studied engineering at university and in our final year we had one law lecture each week, just for interest outside of the usual engineering subjects. I enjoyed this introduction to law so much that I looked for a career in law and discovered the niche profession of patent attorneys. I applied for jobs in the patent attorney profession before graduation and was lucky enough to obtain a job as a trainee patent and trade mark attorney in a private practice firm. From my first day I loved the fact that the work was so varied. In my first few months of employment I was involved in a range of cases from pitching for work to protect the brands of a major building society to assisting with a high court patent infringement case involving cloth cutting machinery.

The first year flew by and my company paid for me to attend a specialist post-graduate IP course at Queen Mary University. Along with around 30 other trainee attorneys I attended the course 4 days each week for 3 to 4 months. After passing a series of fairly rigorous post-course examinations I was now classified as part-qualified. I also made some great friends during those formative years.

After passing another couple of rounds of examinations I qualified as a patent attorney and worked in-house at Rolls Royce Plc for a few years before rejoining private practice. Shortly after qualification I started a family and whilst my children were very young I decided to establish a sole practitioner practice, Chapman IP,  to provide more flexibility whilst raising my children. This was never an ambition of mine and I didn’t want to work alone – but was more out of necessity at that time. Quite quickly and as the years passed, the practice grew and my job changed into one of running a business, managing staff and training new entrants to the profession. The original concept of having a more flexible job disappeared with the growth of the company but it was a huge privilege to work alongside colleagues and establish roles and opportunities for them to grow their careers within the company. Although at times it was stressful, especially juggling family commitments with running a small business, I thoroughly enjoyed this part of my career and it has been particularly fantastic to see the successes of my previous trainees and staff.

After almost 20 years, Chapman IP was acquired by another larger firm of patent and trade mark attorneys, Murgitroyd Plc, and I was retained as a non-executive director. My job is to work alongside and support the executive board members and investor owners with company strategy and growth. Murgitroyd has grown organically and via a number of acquisitions. I continue to enjoy working with some exceptional people and to learn from my colleagues as well as support them.

I also serve as non-executive chair on the board of a technology-driven brand protection company, SnapDragon Monitoring. It specialises in finding and taking down counterfeit products and infringing brands. I have been lucky enough to have such a varied career from trainee patent attorney to business founder to board director: the sector of law dealing with Intellectual Property offers lots of employment opportunities in terms of styles and types of jobs.

Patent Attorney / Murgitroyd

Last Updated: January 8, 2025