Spotlight: RedLaw interviews...Charlotte Wilding, Head of Trade Marks, Kemp Little LLP

Six months into her new role as Head of Trade Marks, Charlotte Wilding talks to us about how Kemp Little is fairing in the Covid 19 storm, the impact the pandemic is having on her practice and how the firm is adapting to add value to clients during these unprecedented times, including the offering of their award winning tech tools.

Charlotte also shares her 'day in the "lockdown" life' juggling working full time whilst caring for her small daughter, a position many of us now find ourselves in.

You’ve been in the role as Head of Trade Marks now for over 6 months. What are your plans for the practice over the next year and how do you want to drive it moving forward?

The plan is to keep building and developing on the expansion of the practice. With that in mind, we promoted Emilia Petrossian from paralegal to trainee trade mark attorney in October 2019 and hired Leigh Mumford as a trade mark and design administrator in March 2020 to assist with the formality requirements. This is in line with the expansion of the wider IP and Technology Disputes team that the trade mark practice sits in, which grew by 8 people in 2019 alone.

We are continuing to offer clear, strategic, commercial advice to our clients, as well as highlighting our wealth of knowledge and practicability to new clients. In the last year, we have welcomed over 20 new clients on board, demonstrating how brilliant our offering really is.

I am really proud of the team and how proactive and eager to develop everyone is!

You worked at Keltie LLP for 11 years. What were your main drivers behind the move and why Kemp Little?

Whilst I loved working at Keltie, 11 years is testament to that, I did feel like it was time for a challenge and I couldn’t say no to the opportunity to run and grow a trade mark practice.

When researching Kemp Little I felt that their core values (innovation, creativity, efficiency, honesty etc) were the same as mine and this was confirmed in my interviews and general discussions with the firm. I knew that I was going to fit in well and be given the space and support to develop the practice as I envisioned. I am pleased to report that this has proven to be true!

Kemp Little is a specialist Technology and Digital Media firm with wealth of knowledge across these specialisms. What sets the firm apart from its competitors? What does it do differently and what added value does it give to its clients?

As you say, Kemp Little is a specialist in technology and digital media – in fact, it has the largest collection of specialist commercial technology lawyers in the Square Mile. Innovation and collaboration are the foundations upon which Kemp Little has been built and these continue to be our drivers as we strive to deliver best in class legal services using technology as an enabler for both greater innovation and efficiency. We pride ourselves on offering each client a bespoke and focused service.

Given that the firm is technology focused, it comes as no surprise that we have a number of lawyers, and non-lawyers, who have genuine interests in technology allowing us to create proprietary tools for clients, such as:

• 4Corners - this recently won the FT Innovation in the Business of Law: Technology at the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards! 4Corners captures everything within the four corners of a contract
• Kira - machine learning software for contract review and M&A due diligence
• Dupe Killer - an AI tool which scans and scrapes the Internet for copycat marks and designs

I think this alone sets us apart from competitors.

On a more human level, Kemp Little is very keen to encourage employee growth and creativity - they treat everyone like adults and listen to all ideas that are suggested to both better the firm and its staff. We also have a blind CV policy, to help us break through any bias in the way we recruit, and flexible and part time working are also genuinely offered and in place. We don’t just talk about work / life balance, we encourage it.

The current climate is very uncertain at the moment across the world. Your practice specialises in trademarks, IP and technology. Have you, as yet, seen any impact on these areas from the outbreak of the Coronavirus? And what are your predictions for these sectors in the future?

As you would expect in any area, there has been an impact as the pandemic is such an unknown that clients are erring on the side of caution. We are finding that some projects intended for this year and being postponed until the end of the year/next year. So far, nothing has been taken off the table completely as clients understand the importance of IP even in uncertain times. IP faired quite well during the 2008 recession and I expect it to do the same here – brands will not disappear. We are encouraging clients to be strategic in their IP thinking.

One thing I have noticed is that there is a lot of sharing IP at the moment. Typically, IP rights provide the owner with an exclusive right, but the pandemic has meant there is an increase in copyright, designs and patents being ‘shared’ in the community in order to speed up the recovery. This is also allowing for a lot of new IP to be created with the various inventions related to COVID-19. It may be the case that this sharing continues in certain sectors long after the pandemic has finished or, at the very least, new collaborations are encouraged.

How is the firm adapting their offerings to meet clients’ needs in these challenging times?

Our brilliant IT team effectively turned in to a remote office overnight so there has been no disruption to our services. We are also offering virtual secondments to clients to fill any gaps due to the pandemic (or otherwise) to ensure that they are fully supported to work as they need to.

The marketing team have also been excellent. All Kemp Little events, where possible, are now being delivered by webinar or video conference so that our great content is still shared. For example, the second Brands Updater in our on-going series will go ahead on 21 May 2020 as planned. The brands updaters are designed for those who want a punchy reminder of the key issues, trends and developments in brand & soft IP over the previous six months. They are practical sessions designed to equip them with some new ideas and insights on protecting and enforcing IP rights and improving brand strategy, rather than simply case updates.

We have also created a COVID-19 hub to ensure that our content surround the pandemic and its impact on various matters is easily accessible: https://www.kemplittle.com/covid-19-your-business-continuity-issues/

The message at Kemp Little is very much one of adaptability and assisting clients wherever possible to ensure that they are supported.

Work is looking very different for us all right now. What does your ‘new’ typical day look like?

Both me and my husband work full time, and have a 2 ½ year old daughter, so it is quite the juggling act. We’ve found that what works for us is having shifts, which change every day depending on meetings. The first day was quite hectic as we were both getting use to the ‘new’ day, but we have managed to find a pattern that works. It does, however, mean that we often start earlier and finish later with gaps throughout the day.

What will be your biggest take away/lessons learned, personal or professional, from this very different world we find ourselves in now?

I have always been a family person, but this has made me even more so – I am really missing family. I cannot wait to be able to have everyone round for roast dinner / BBQ again!

On a professional level, I think that the move towards increased working from home will speed up. I have been quite lucky in that Kemp Little were ahead of the game and encouraged all employees to work from home at least one day a week if possible. This meant we were able to transform to a law firm that worked from home overnight. I suspect that this may become encouraged throughout businesses where working from home may be possible.

Finally, both personally and professionally, I think the pandemic has just highlighted how important communication is. Personally, my husband and I constantly communicate to each other about how our day looks so that there are no clashing meetings for example (and so we know how much food is in the fridge!). Also, we have lots of video calls with grandparents, great grandparents and friends to make sure that everyone is ok. Professionally, I now lead the team remotely, which includes training Leigh remotely, so effective communication is vital. Clients expect it.

The book you can’t put down is….

I don’t get so much time to read at the moment, but I do have several books that I like to go back to every now and then. My favourites are probably 1984 by George Orwell – it’s quick and easy to read (and scarily close to the truth sometimes!) – and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman – I had a quote from The Amber Spyglass read out at my wedding.

Kemp Little has just created a virtual book club so I’m hoping that will give me a good reason to get back in to reading! I’ve had to ‘read’ the current book via audio and I definitely don’t enjoy it as much as reading a proper, physical book!

The takeaway meal or restaurant you really miss is….

Thai green curry! Luckily, our local farm shop is still open for deliveries and has a good stock of COOK food, so I have ordered some of their Thai green curry. We’re also experimenting with cooking our own at home now that we have the time! My daughter isn’t too keen – bit too spicy for her liking – but she is having lots of fun baking (and eating) cakes and making pizzas, so she’s not missing out!

The RedLaw team is sharing a motivational track at 2pm each day to keep connected and boost morale. What uplifting, feel good song could you suggest we add to our playlist?

“I’m a Believer” by the Monkees.