Martineau Johnson has picked up the joint head of intellectual property at Freethcartwright in further evidence of the Birmingham firm’s move to restyle itself as a technology and media specialist.
Helen Driscoll, who headed the contentious IP team for four years at the Nottingham-based Freethcartwright joined as a partner earlier this week.
Driscoll, one of the best known IP lawyers in the East Midlands, will be working alongside practice head and newly-appointed senior partner William Barker and partner Niall Head-Rapson who joined the firm from Eversheds in Nottingham earlier this year.
Despite maintaining a reputation as a broad service regional firm, Martineaus has in recent years invested heavily in its IP practice, which is rated alongside top tier Birmingham firms Wragge & Co and Pinsent Curtis Biddle as a regional leader.
“I am planning to develop and add to the existing client base, as well as advising on litigation issues such as patent laws, software rights and more increasingly the effect that the internet has had on IP,” said Driscoll.
Driscoll is also expected to take on some of Barker’s client work, so that he can spend more time in his role as senior partner.
“The east midlands market is a very difficult one,” she added. “It will be easier for me to build up work from a Birmingham office with a presence in London and international connections.”
She has brought a number of clients along with her from Freetcartwrights.
In total the department has eight lawyers, four of who are partners. Barker confirmed that there will be a number of junior appointments before the end of the year.
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