Our growing Physics and Engineering practice is looking for a talented individual to join our team. We are proud to work for some of the world’s most well-known and innovative tech companies, as well as start-ups, SMEs and leading academic organisations. We are looking for an individual who enjoys working with direct clients in cutting-edge research.

The team’s workload is continuing to expand. Nearly and newly qualified Patent Attorneys will be considered for this role.

Key Responsibilities

At Appleyard Lees, the work is very varied and rewarding. You will be able to join meetings with inventors, draft applications, be involved in due diligence and opposition work. You will need to be articulate and good at communicating, particularly in writing.  Our work can sometimes be multi-disciplinary and collaborative, so you will need to work with attorneys in other disciplines. Therefore, you will need to have good people skills and be able to work in a team.

If you are working to complete the qualification process, you will gain real experience that is directly relevant to the professional exams you will undertake. Our trainees are given all the support they need to qualify as UK and European patent attorneys. We combine in-house exam-specific tutorials with external courses, to help our trainees to obtain the knowledge and skills they need to qualify. Trainees are also supervised on their day-to-day work by our experienced and knowledgeable attorneys.

If you are already qualified, we support you to develop further and take the next steps in your career.

At Appleyard Lees, we support you to develop into the best attorney you can be and to take the next steps in your career.  In particular, we aim to provide the right level of support for the transition from trainee to senior attorney.  For us, your development training does not stop when you have passed the professional exams. We offer training and continued professional development at all levels of your career and this includes bespoke in-house training and development programmes for qualified attorneys.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Degree qualified in Physics or Engineering
• Nearly or newly qualified with at least 2-5 years of experience in the profession
• Management of a broad spectrum of physics and/or engineering work.
• Experience in drafting, filing and prosecuting UK, EPO and PCT applications.
• An understanding of EPO opposition and appeal procedure, and preferably some experience of contentious oral proceedings, although not necessarily in a speaking role.
• Ability to take on large amounts of information and think logically
• Commitment to meeting client expectations
• Good communicator both written and verbally with the ability to communicate at all levels

Benefits

We pride ourselves on being small and friendly enough for you to get to know everyone – but big enough to offer you great career prospects. We will assign you with a mentor who will be able to provide professional and personal support throughout your training contract. Providing people with a mentor is a critical part of enabling development and knowing if individuals are ‘on track’ in terms of their career path and progression, it also helps with improving knowledge and skills.

Aside from this, we will fund all of your training including memberships, exams, courses and conferences. We also encourage our technical teams to write articles for our Greenshoots platform and take part in podcasts.

Other benefits we offer include:

• 34 hour working week
• A blend of office and home working
• Annual salary review
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays
• Life assurance
• Healthcare cash plan
• Social outings – summer parties, AL Junior events, Christmas party and more
• A voucher on your birthday
• Charity events – games nights and fuddles
• A friendly and inclusive place to work and learn

About Appleyard Lees

Appleyard Lees is a leading intellectual property law firm with approximately seventy patent and trade mark attorneys and litigators across offices in Halifax, Leeds, Manchester, and Cambridge.

We provide a full range of intellectual property (IP) services covering patents, trade marks, designs and copyright in the UK, Europe and worldwide. We use our technical and legal skills, and many years of experience, to identify and protect IP assets and to uncover and eliminate the risks posed by other people’s IP rights.

Who we are, and what we do – but also, how we do it – makes us distinctive.

Our clients include some of the world’s most exciting innovators, largest companies, and household names, with a number of clients obtaining Fortune 500, Fortune Global 2000, FTSE 100, FTSE 250, and Forbes Global 2000 status. Our clients operate across a diverse collection of industries, including chemicals, retail, consumer goods, electronics, software, bio and life sciences, pharmaceuticals, metals, and heavy industry, higher education, and hospitality, leisure, and tourism.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) has always been part of the core values of Appleyard Lees.  To us, diversity is not just a box-ticking exercise, it is a core part of our firm’s values . Diversity of people means diversity of ideas and perspectives, and these allow us to be more creative and flexible as a business.

We welcome the unique contribution that a diverse workforce will bring to our firm and actively encourage applications from all talented people – however your talent is packaged, whatever your background or circumstance and regardless of how you identify.