An IP Ability webinar
for Disability Pride Month
Friday 22 July 2022
12.30 – 1.30 pm
In celebration of Disability Pride Month, IP Ability invited us to join them on Friday 22 July at 12:30 pm for an online panel discussion with solicitor Mark Blois and patent attorney Gemma Christie. They shared their experiences as disabled professionals in the legal industry, and their career journeys from first starting out to the senior roles they now hold.
More about the panel
Mark Blois is a partner and head of law firm Browne Jacobson’s education practice, and has more than two decades of experience as an education lawyer and of serving in governance roles in the school, academy and further education sectors, as well as being a trustee of the National Association for Special Educational Needs and having long-standing involvement at a senior level with the L.E.A.D Academy Trust, a 25 school multi-academy trust operating in the East Midlands, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire region.
Gemma Christie is a director at IP law firm Keltie. She is a UK and European patent attorney and UK design attorney, who has worked both in-house and in private practice. Before joining the patent profession Gemma worked for GKN as a graduate engineer in the automotive and aerospace sectors before joining Jaguar Cars as an NVH specialist. Gemma has also spent time off-shore on oil rigs in both the North Sea and Nigeria. Today, in addition to her patent work, Gemma sits on of the Board of Farnborough College of Technology as Vice-Chair.
Chairing the panel discussion was Marianne Privett, a partner and patent attorney at AA Thornton and co-lead of IP Ability.
Intended audience
The event was open to all UK-based IP professionals, including of course disabled and neurodivergent people and their allies, regardless of the type of organisation they worked in, the role they played in it or their career level.
We also encouraged attendees to invite a guest to watch the webinar with them – someone in a different role or at a different career level, perhaps; an ally or potential ally; or a colleague who’s not yet involved with IP Inclusive.
Follow-up resources
A recording of the main panel discussion is available here.
Cost
This event was free. So are all our resources. We think it’s important to keep IP Inclusive the right side of the paywall.
That said, we do need money to keep the show on the road, so if you enjoyed the event please consider contributing to our fundraising campaign. For more information – including about corporate donations – visit our fundraising page.