Our annual update and planning event
with added excitement!
Wednesday 2 April 2025
2 – 5 pm
Please join us for our 2025 annual meeting and help us celebrate IP Inclusive’s first ten years!
Panel discussion:
Why do diversity and inclusion still matter?
Because this meeting is a bit special, we’re including a panel discussion on an important, high-level topic. With experts from the IP sector and beyond, we’ll explore how businesses and the wider community are likely to view equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) as we move into the future. Will they still care? Will we still care? Will we have the resources to act on that? What challenges will we face – socially, economically, environmentally – that could make it harder for us to champion diversity? And what can we do to make sure the fight for EDI isn’t subsumed by other conflicting factors?
These are existential questions that IP Inclusive can’t afford to shy away from as we look towards our next ten years. So we feel it’s important to give airtime to a conversation that all our supporters can be part of.
Read on for the panellists’ details. The discussion will be chaired by Max Walters, Editor at Managing IP.
Meet the Panellists
Jonathan Andrews
Jonathan Andrews is an Associate Solicitor at Reed Smith, specialising in Entertainment and Media law (with a large IP practice), and is a strong advocate for driving inclusion for disabled and neurodivergent people in the workplace and wider society. A former member of IP Ability, Jonathan has served (among many other roles) on the Diversity Council of the International Trademark Association, UK government advisory boards for disability employment, the Westminster Autism Commission and the UK Law Society’s Council and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and has supported charities such as the UK’s national charity for young autistic people, Ambitious about Autism. Jonathan is recognised as one of the UK’s most influential disabled/neurodivergent individuals and has received national and international recognition, including as the European Diversity Awards’ Campaigner of the Year 2016, a 2017 Queen’s Young Leader, an honorary graduate of the Open University in 2018, the Law Society’s Junior Lawyer of the Year 2019, and the UK’s fourth-most influential disabled person in 2020 (by the Shaw Trust Power List, which he now judges). He was named Top Role Model for Neurodiversity by the worldwide Enable List in 2024.
Sian-Nia Davies
Sian-Nia joined the IPO in June 2021 as Head of Platforms. She became Interim Chief Technology Officer in October 2021 and was confirmed as Chief Digital, Data & Technology Officer in July 2022.
Prior to joining the IPO, Sian-Nia enjoyed a long and varied career at BT, latterly leading on the delivery of complex, multi £million digital programmes. This is also where she built the experience in leading large and cross-skilled technical teams across a broad spectrum of platforms and technologies, covering the entire IT Lifecycle.
Sian-Nia holds a BSc in Applied Biology from Cardiff University and is a fluent Welsh speaker.
Adrian Howes
Adrian Howes is Head of IP and Standards in Nokia’s IP Policy team and the current President of the IP Federation.
Prior to joining Nokia, Adrian worked as a senior litigation counsel at Mylan/Viatris, a legal consultant for Sony Computer Entertainment and an associate in the intellectual property department of the law firm Bird & Bird. He is an English qualified lawyer, and studied chemistry and law at the Universities of Durham and Cambridge, respectively.
Adrian’s work at Nokia presently encompasses policy and regulation on issues relating to IPR. This includes active involvement in cross-industry and government-level discussions on Standard Essential Patents and software licensing and their place in the next generation of communication and video standards.
Joan Scott
Joan Scott is an award winning In-House Corporate-Commercial Legal Counsel currently at Nissan UK. She has a particular interest in IP and brand protection having obtained a Masters (LL.M) in IP Law from King’s College London. Previously appointed as an Advisory Board member of EUROPOL’s Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition (“IPC3”) based in The Hague, she has also participated extensively as part of the EUIPO’s Observatory Expert Groups in Alicante, Spain, while also advocating on behalf of European clients at the European Commission and European Parliament.
A passionate advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, Joan leads on a number of initiatives supporting greater accessibility and diversity of the legal profession. In her capacity as Board Director of the Black Solicitor Network (“BSN”) and Chair of BSN’s City division, Joan has been instrumental in creating working partnerships with a number of organisations to support in the creation of a Junior Legal Fellowship. A mentor and proponent of social mobility, Joan was most recently awarded DE&I Champion of the Year: In-House Lawyer (2025 Women & Diversity in Law Awards), recognised as a leading O-Shape Lawyer (O-List Award 2025), ranked in the Top 10 of the 2024 Empower Global Top 100 Future Leader Role Model List, and was shortlisted as a Law Society Legal Hero for her work in DEI and Mentorship. Joan continues to use her voice, experiences and position to champion greater inclusivity across the profession.
Justine Thompson
Justine Thompson is an Inclusion and Culture specialist, with over 20 years’ experience in talent and EDI in the legal sector. She is currently the Executive Director of the InterLaw Diversity Forum and the Head of Market Intelligence for culture specialists Inclusive Group.
Justine has a strong focus on workplace culture, psychological safety, and the impacts of micro-behaviours. In addition to training firms on these topics, she regularly leads culture audits and process reviews aimed at identifying, and addressing barriers and awareness gaps. Justine has played an active role shaping cross-sector and legal-sector initiatives, ranging from the Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s Green Ribbon Campaign and Rare Recruitment’s UK Race Fairness Commitment through to the InterLaw Diversity Forum’s UK Model Diversity Survey.
Max Walters (chair)
Max has worked in journalism since 2012. His first job was for a local newspaper in London before he branched out into trade journalism. He spent three years at World IP Review before moving on to cover other legal disciplines for the Law Society Gazette. He joined Managing IP as a senior reporter in 2019, later becoming deputy editor and then editor in 2023.
World Autism Awareness Day
It just so happens that 2 April 2025 is World Autism Awareness Day. We’ll be making extra sure that our discussions embrace the impact of future EDI initiatives on neurodiverse professionals and clients.
Where and when?
As in 2024, this year’s annual meeting will be hybrid in format, kindly hosted by A & O Shearman both at their London office in Bishopsgate and online.
Please join us in-person if you can, as there will be plenty of networking opportunities including a drinks-and-nibbles reception after the meeting ends. This year we’re running it in the afternoon, which we hope will be easier for people travelling from outside London.
Access all the logistical details here.
Our programme
In addition to the panel discussion, this informal meeting will include:
- Updates from our communities, networks, Careers in Ideas task force and other working groups;
- A sneak preview of our 2025 Impact Report;
- A chance to hear from our management team and Advisory Board; and
- A discussion about what the next ten years should look like for IP Inclusive.
There will be some informal group discussions (breakout rooms online) so that everyone has a chance to be heard, as well as an opportunity for audience Q&A with the panellists. Please bring along your suggestions and feedback!
Please visit this page to download the full agenda and other meeting papers.
The IPIM Annual General Meeting
Our annual meeting incorporates the formal AGM for our governing body IP Inclusive Management (IPIM). But we’ll keep that part short. We’re not much into bureaucracy.
Who’s invited?
Everyone who works in or with the UK’s IP sector is welcome. It doesn’t matter what type of organisation or department you work in, what role you play there or how senior you are, we’d love you to get involved!
Registration
This event is free. So are all our resources. That said, we do need money to keep the show on the road, so if you enjoy the event please consider choosing a voluntary donation ticket or clicking Donate now! For more information visit our fundraising page.
If you have any specific access requirements, please let us know when you register or by emailing [email protected]; we’ll do what we can to help.