Norton Rose expands London patent practice with partner hire
Less than a year after losing two partners, the London office of Norton Rose Fulbright has reinforced its partnership. Paul Joseph joins from full-service international firm RPC, where he had been a partner for ten years. Joseph specialises in patent disputes, as well as soft IP and technology.
8 May 2020 by Amy Sandys
Norton Rose and Gowling WLG located by the Thames in London, next to City Hall and the Shard ©olavs/ADOBE STOCK
Global firm Norton Rose has announced a new partner. Paul Joseph (43) began his career at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, spending ten years at the international firm in London. Joseph then spent time at Israeli commercial law firm, Herzog Fox Neeman before moving in 2010 to RPC. He became a partner in 2012, in the IP/tech litigation team.
Paul Joseph
Joseph describes his new firm as “a market-leading technology and innovation practice, with particular strength in fintech. This provides a great platform and I am looking forward to working with the team to helping to drive the firm’s growth strategy for IP and IT disputes work.”
His hire sees the Norton Rose patent team grow to three – two partners, and one associate. The overall IP team is somewhat larger, with 18 fee-earners.
Boutique to global
Joseph moved to Norton Rose from London-based IP and IT boutique RPC. He focuses on soft IP and technology disputes, but also does a significant amount of patent work. This is mainly on the licensing and collaboration side, in both non-contentious and contentious litigation.
At RPC, Joseph had been one of five partners. The firm has today announced the promotion of one of its associates, Henry Priestly, to partner level, bringing the number of patent and disputes partners back to five.
RPC partner David Cran, says “RPC has a full-service IP and technology practice which works closely with many world-leading clients. Naturally, we are looking to continue to build the IP/technology team and that includes expanding the team. We have a number of partners in mind for future recruitment.”
The boutique also has seven partners within its broader IP, commercial and technology transactional and media teams.
Thames neighbours
In June 2019, the London office of Norton Rose suffered a setback when two of its patent partners, Huw Evans and Jonathan Ball, moved to Gowling WLG – the neighbouring building to Norton Rose on London’s riverside. Huw Evans returned to the Gowling patent team from Norton Rose, having been a partner at the firm between 2000 and 2009 when it was still Birmingham-based firm Wragge & Co.
At Norton Rose, Jon Ball was head of risk advisory for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Ball then trained as an associate at the London office of Taylor Wessing, before moving to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He became partner at DMH Stallard until 2008. Norton Rose then appointed him as partner, where he covered a range of IP cases.
Notable representative cases include IPCom vs. HTX and Brightpoint, and Baxter Healthcare vs. Abbott Laboratories over sevoflurane.
