During my undergraduate studies, I had thought that I wanted to work in commercial research and so embarked upon a PhD that was sponsored by a famous toothpaste manufacturer, thinking this would give me the perfect insight. However, as with a lot of patent attorneys, I grew disillusioned with the research over the course of my PhD and instead turned towards a career as a patent attorney.

I joined Mathys & Squire after spending a couple of years working at another patent attorney firm. I had a couple of friends working here that I met during the Queen Mary course and heard great things about the firm, its way of training and the way they treat their trainees. I was attracted by the open and friendly nature of the firm in contrast to the rigid and rather old-fashioned nature of my previous firm. One of the main things that has stood out to me at Mathys & Squire is that right from the start you are given a lot of trust and responsibility and have a lot of client contact. I think I had my first client meeting on my second day!

The person I work most closely with is another one of the senior associates, and together we work under the supervision of one of our partners. I have a wide and varied diet of work and have a lot of say in the types of work I get. This is really helpful, particularly when preparing for our professional exams, and is quite rare in our profession. On top of this, we have a lot of in-house tutorials, and the firm is happy to pay for whatever books or send us on whatever courses we need. They really try and support you as much as they can in qualifying as a patent attorney.

The firm is really friendly, and it definitely feels like I’m working in a fun, exciting and enterprising environment. We’ve just moved to the Shard, which really makes it feel like the firm is progressing and has a very modern outlook. I’ve just qualified as a UK attorney and so I now get my own office – which sounds quite impressive when I tell my friends that I have my own office in the Shard!

There is always one social event or another going on – be it a summer party for all our families or the weekly trip to the pub. A number of us here are also on the Informals committee (the student body of CIPA), so we frequently work with trainees in other firms to organise tutorials or social events such as the five-a-side football tournament.