Naji Tilley

I am a newly-qualified Associate in our Intellectual Property department, based in London, with a focus on contentious matters.

I have assisted with advising clients across a range of intellectual property rights, including high-value copyright and trade mark litigation, brand protection and regulatory advice. Having trained and qualified at Bird & Bird, I have had exposure to work across multiple sectors, including Media Entertainment & Sport, Technology & Communications, Retail & Consumer, and Life Sciences & Healthcare.

My sector expertise has also been shaped by my LLM studies, which included the intersections between IP and competition law in the telecoms industry (standard-essential patent (FRAND) litigation), and the pharmaceuticals sector (in relation to the balance between incentives for drug innovation through patent protection and keeping drug prices down, and the impact of reverse-payment settlements/pay-to-delay agreements with generic drug manufacturers).

I also bring a depth of English civil litigation background to my practice. Prior to joining Bird & Bird, I was an Assistant Editor in the Dispute Resolution team at Practical Law UK for three years, in which I assisted in producing cutting-edge legal knowhow and current awareness across all main topics and developments in English civil litigation.

As part of my training contract, I spent three months on secondment to The Football Association, in which I assisted in advising on a range of intellectual property licensing and other commercial agreements, as well as contentious and regulatory work. Through this experience, I have gained a particular eye for clients' own points of view and their priorities when seeking legal advice in house, which I aim to carry with me to add value to my work for our clients.

I contribute (if not in content, then certainly in high-quality puns) to some of the firm's leading client-facing publications, including MediaWrites and BrandWrites, as well as contributing reports on trade mark cases for the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) Journal.

I have a particular passion for social mobility in the legal profession, and regularly volunteer my time to appear on videos and podcasts on the topic, in graduate and student events for our Early Careers programmes, as well as contributing other published materials on my own journey into law, with pieces for Bright Network, The Lawyer Portal and Target Jobs.