At Stobbs, we are originality-obsessed and always look to do things differently– and that extends to our role titles.

The IA Director role reflects the fact that we are not a traditional law firm. It signifies that trade marking and IP can be handled in a better way– by people who are legally trained, yet commercially driven. Their knowledge of business, passion for brands, and practical approach to problem solving drives creative and lasting solutions for our clients and their brands.

The IA Director role is a recognition of leadership and expertise, and we are delighted to announce the promotion of two of our team to this level. Huge congratulations to Nina Kent and Catherine Byfield!

Nina Kent joined us in 2018 as a hugely experienced Trade Mark Attorney from her time at Maucher Jenkins, and as the first member of our “Core” team is a true original. The Core team spans all of our Squads (which are named based on colours), and is now universally termed the “Rainbow” team. 

The role of “Rainbow” is to:

(a) provide cover for our Squad-attorneys when they are on vacation, or on extended sickness or parental leave and 

(b) drive the continuing development of our approach and training– which leads to reinforcing the highest level of quality and consistency of that quality across the firm.

Nina has managed to seamlessly transition from supporting dozens of clients across all of our Squads– on deployments that could last from two weeks to over a year. This success is testament to her expertise, but also the combination of calmness, adaptability and can-do attitude that she brings to Stobbs and our clients.

On the back of Nina’s role in making this function such a success, “Rainbow” is now 8-strong, supporting our attorney and solicitor teams, housing our Virtual General Counsel/ Head of IP offering, and directly training new attorneys.

This recognition comes with a huge amount of gratitude for the impact Nina has made with us– and is really well deserved. 

Catherine Byfield also joined Stobbs as a Trade Mark Attorney in 2018, having worked at Rouse and Bristows previously for 13 years. 

After working with the Purple Squad for a year or so, Catherine joined Nina in “Rainbow”, providing cover for the attorneys and also working on long-term client secondments. This experience led her to recognize that whilst she is a brilliant attorney and enjoyed the variety of work that “Rainbow” offers, she missed the regular drumbeat of long-term client relationships– and the sense of continuous development and improvement that her impact can have with her clients.

In this way, Catherine is a real example of our virtual in-house approach, and the principle of “the more we understand, the more we can help”. She earns trust by seeking to fundamentally understand her clients and then creates lasting impact through bringing together her thorough understanding of the client’s business, her broader perspectives and experience, and the multi-disciplinary expertise that Stobbs is uniquely positioned to offer.

Catherine’s reputation as a client-management superpower has been further established based on her current work with one of our largest clients. The organization has multiple business units, stakeholders and associated agendas across many locations and time-zones, but the feedback on how Catherine has managed to navigate this challenging topography has been outstanding. Her unique brand of deep expertise (worn lightly), and a firm hand (deployed politely!) has made her an essential team mate and invaluable counsel.  

We are thrilled to have Catherine on our side– and her elevation to IA Director is worthy recognition for her impact with us, and with her clients.