The UK IP team of Herbert Smith Freehills are consistently highly recommended in key legal directories Legal 500, Chambers and Who’s Who Legal. Partners Joel Smith, Mark Shillito, Andrew Moir, Sophie Rich, Jonathan Turnbull and Sebastian Moore are ranked as leading individuals across the major IP directories Managing IP stars, IAM patent and WTR 1000, as well as Legal 500 and Chambers.
In September 2019, the UK team were shortlisted for IP litigation team of the year in The Legal Week awards. Other awards include: IP Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2017; and Transatlantic IP Team of the Year 2017 in The American Lawyer.
Joel is Head of IP, UK and an intellectual property litigator and commercial IP specialist.
Based in London, Joel has over 20 years’ experience in practice and has international experience, having previously worked in Hong Kong, Milan and Sydney. He is the head of trade marks and also leads the transactional IP practice, working with clients on some of the UK’s most complex IP cases.
Joel is focused on delivering strong commercial outcomes and has developed close relationships with many of the firm’s key clients across a number of sectors including FMCG, media, technology, energy and agribusiness. He has unique expertise in plant breeders’ rights, patents, royalty collection schemes and GMOs.
Joel helps clients strategically with IP disputes, to achieve a satisfactory commercial resolution, whether through litigation or otherwise, and is one of the few IP specialists in the market with major deal experience, as well as heavyweight litigation expertise, with reported cases in the IPEC, High Court, Court of Appeal and Privy Council. He works with clients on cross-border IP disputes, where coordinating action in a number of different jurisdictions is critical to a successful outcome. Joel also helps businesses put in place brand and other IP licensing arrangements, including technology transfer, and is also called on by clients for brand crisis management advice in the face of urgent or unexpected events.
