Corporate

Rob has a degree in Natural Sciences, Agriculture and Forestry from Oxford University and started his career with Shell, working in R&D. He then spent 20 years in DuPont, initially in scientific research. Rob soon moved into sales & marketing and then into management, specializing in launching new technology businesses. His management positions included several at director level, with one as a divisional managing director.

Subsequently, Rob was CEO of a Cambridge-based healthcare company specializing in digital imaging technologies. During his 3 year tenure, he won a substantial national contract with the NHS, and successfully launched the business into the US and European markets.

Prior to joining Avidity IP, Rob was Director of Business Development for CPA Global, responsible for global marketing, legal services strategy, and running the trademark watching and domains business units. He also ran the commercial due diligence process for the sale of CPA Global to the Intermediate Capital Group in 2010.

Rob has lived and worked in N. America, France, Russia and Brazil, covering the agri-business, biotechnology, healthcare and food ingredients sectors.

Nick joined Avidity IP following 24 years with Xerox. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy from the University of Surrey and a Master’s degree in Work Design & Ergonomics from the University of Birmingham. He started his career working for a small electronics company, Electronic Facilities Design, working on human factors requirements for military systems.

He Initially joined Xerox as a Human Factors Specialist working in Product Design & Development, moving into a number of Group Resources roles and then into Learning & Development. Nick comes to Avidity IP with 11 years’ experience working as a Leadership & Management Development Manager, supporting the development of the 600 leaders and managers who operate throughout Xerox’s European organisation. In this role he designed and delivered blended leadership and management development programmes, integrating learning technologies to reach remote audiences. He also provided facilitated learning workshops and 1:1 coaching support as well as creating bespoke e-learning.

Nick has worked in the UK, Europe, North America and the Far East.

Malcolm is an experienced UK and European Patent Attorney and a Registered Trade Mark Attorney, and he has had a current Litigator’s Certificate since 2001.

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Corporate and partnership environments have little in common.

In the process of transformation between the two which has now been passed through by HLBBshaw, I have been astonished by many things. Two amongst them stand out: (1) the value of real commercial management – in terms of direction, problem-solving, process, a truck load of other things and (2) the terrific value of investing in people as our major asset.

At an early stage in this journey, we did two crucial things. First we set out what we thought we wanted to achieve – in short we wrote a Mission Statement. Second, we set down what we thought our Core Values were – in essence the values that we thought we had and which we should use to deliver on the Mission. There was perhaps a third thing, namely never to forget either.

We reflect our Mission in the way we think and never forget the responsibilities it encapsulates. Our Core Values are equally evident in our behaviours, demonstrated in the buzz of the work environment, the talk and the walk of the people you see.

HLBBshaw is an electric place with a direction and an ambition and a special way of doing things. It’s for people who have a passion about what they do for a living, who want to share it with others in a drive for something worthwhile and different. It's a business where change is normal, excellence is ordinary and where you find out pretty quickly that almost everything has something extraordinary about it.

This all makes our organisation a great place to work where people develop their talents in a challenging and open environment where we respond to ambition and offer an inclusivity which we think is unique in the European IP space. That means for clients that we also have a great set of people to do business with. But restaurants are usually best judged by diners and not by the chef, so here are extracts from a few quotes from people who know us, both as clients and as alumni; we can provide copies of author’s originals in all cases, in a few only with specific client authority.

Director of IP, global pharmaceutical industry:
"Service standards at HLBBshaw are amongst the best in my experience. They are always timely and the small group of people who directly serve us are very easy to deal with. Unusually, HLBBshaw requests service feedback from us from time to time - something which I find is rare in other service providers."

VP and General Counsel, pharmaceutical industry:
“Mr. Lawrence is an exceptional lawyer, and has provided me with sound guidance and counsel relating to patent matters."

VP and General Counsel, pharmaceutical industry:
“I have been involved with a number of intellectual property firms in the US, EU and other countries. I would, without hesitation, place Mr. Lawrence and his firm in the very top tier of lawyers I have worked with.”

VP and Chief Patent Counsel, pharmaceutical industry:
“Over my 20 years of practice before the EPO I have not met any EP representatives that I consider more professional and successful for their clients than Malcolm and Richard…….I have complete trust in their ability to assemble the teams that are needed for complex patent matters from the deep talent pool that exists in HLBBShaw.”

Senior shareholder (electronics), US IP law firm:
“I have found the thoroughness provided by HLBBshaw to be of the highest calibre and the personnel also to be such. I would recommend HLBBshaw to any firm requiring representation with respect to European patent and trademark matters.”

Senior Shareholder (life sciences), US IP law firm:
“They have worked on the most important cases I have handled during my career, with tremendous success."

VP for Intellectual Property, pharmaceutical industry:
“I have always received a very high quality of service characterised by legal competence, commercial acumen (and thus a genuine appreciation of the relevance of the advice given in respect of our business), creativity and day-to-day working relationships that have always been straightforward and easy.”

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