We are pleased to report that two senior solicitors we trained and assessed in Higher Rights of Audience have recently been made Queen’s Counsel. We pass on our congratulations to David Kavanagh QC of Skadden Arps and Jonathan Taylor QC of Bird & Bird.
Autumn 2016 was a busy time for CPD Training. Chris Taylor ran two fully-booked public basic litigation skills courses at the Royal Institute of British Architects in Portland Place, Marylebone. We also delivered in-house litigation courses for leading patent firms Carpmaels & Ransford, Marks & Clerk, Boult Wade Tennant, Kilburn & Strode, AA Thornton and Keltie.
Peter Lyons once again spent early September 2016 in Belfast, as a member of faculty of the annual advocacy skills training course run by the Law Society of Northern Ireland and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.
Our Higher Rights of Audience programme continues to be popular, with courses being held at K&L Gates, Reed Smith and CMS Cameron McKenna in October and November 2016. Peter Lyons also taught Higher Rights of Audience at Herbert Smith Freehills from 10 to 14 October.
Peter taught PSC Advocacy & Communications Skills to Hill Dickinson in Liverpool and London in October and Bond Dickinson in Newcastle in November. In February he delivered the course for Bond Dickinson in Bristol and Mayer Brown in London.
Having trained and assessed a group of senior patent attorneys in Higher Rights of Audience in 2013, we continue to provide annual CPD advocacy training for them, and are delighted to see them make use regular use of their skills in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and the Patents Court.
In December 2016 Peter Lyons was honoured to be invited to take up a Visiting Scholarship at the University of Tasmania during 2017. He will spend an extended period in Tasmania this year teaching advocacy and contributing to a number of academic projects.
In January 2017 Peter spent a week with students at Queen’s University Belfast teaching advocacy. He also worked with the University of Edinburgh to deliver a training course in negotiation skills to its legal practice course students.
Chris Taylor was invited to teach litigation skills to a consortium of patent firms in Munich in January. The course was hosted by Hoffmann Eitle and was also attended by delegates from Maiwald, Forresters and Manitz Finsterwald.
We have a busy Spring programme with Higher Rights courses at K&L Gates, Dentons and Reed Smith; public and in-house basic litigation courses; and advocacy and public speaking courses for patent attorneys.