Founded in 1884, the firm has grown steadily in recent years. It is now a group of limited liability partnerships, of which Withers & Rogers LLP, the professional practice, is the largest.
The firm is based in six offices: London, Bristol, Warwick, Sheffield, Paris and Munich. We operate in four principal practice groups: Electronics, Computing & Physics; Advanced Engineering; Life Sciences & Chemistry; and Trade Marks, which are represented across all of our offices. We also have a number of specialist practice groups including Higher Education, Clean Technology, Medical Devices and Aerospace & Defence.
Range of client services
We offer clients a full range of intellectual property services. Filing applications for patents and trade mark registrations is our core business, but registered design, design right, copyright, domain name registration and enforcement, due diligence and licensing work is also undertaken.
Professional development
Trainees are assigned to one partner specialising in their practice area, but can expect to work with a variety of other attorneys as well.
The firm runs an in-house training programme, from which regular, structured feedback is provided. Our tutorial system is particularly extensive, with a programme of up to 32 tutorials each year. The firm also provides extensive on-the-job training, including on our case management system and digital dictation system. Extensive printed and electronic manuals and reference materials are also available.
We expect trainees to attend appropriate external courses and there are further opportunities for training after qualification e.g. LLM at Nottingham Law School to become a Patent Attorney Litigator. In-house language training is provided as required.
Trainees are also involved in the marketing and business development process very early on in their career and are encouraged to gain membership of networking organisations.
