Event Listing

George Lucas, British American Tobacco

George Lucas is a patent attorney at British American Tobacco in London. He was diagnosed at 11 years old with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. He is passionate about EPO oppositions, the importance of neurodiversity, and Dungeons & Dragons.

Debbie Nelson, Kilburn & Strode LLP

Debbie Nelson is a Senior HR Business Partner at Kilburn and Strode. Throughout her career, Debbie has worked in various generalist HR roles in different industries including law and property.

Lois Child, Lee & Thompson LLP

Lois is an Associate solicitor at Lee & Thompson LLP in their Video Games team, dealing with intellectual property matters in commercial contracts. She was diagnosed with Autism recently at age 30, although from a young age had always suspected she had the condition. She is also now awaiting an ADHD assessment. Lois also has multiple chronic illnesses and is a passionate advocate for Disability and Neurodiversity inclusion. Outside of work she is an avid player of video games and Dungeons & Dragons.

Camille Evans, Kilburn & Strode LLP

Camille has worked as an Operations Patent Paralegal in Kilburn & Strode’s Tech and Engineering team for 6 years. It was in the workplace where Camille discovered she is autistic and received a formal diagnosis at 28 years old. Camille is passionate about increasing neurodiversity awareness. Camille also enjoys travelling, being out in nature, and reading.

Rianis Dickson, IPO

Rianis is a Senior Policy Advisor in the International Enforcement team at the Intellectual Property Office. She has a degree in Mathematics and joined the IPO as a Patent Examiner in 2015, where she specialised in AI image processing. In 2022, she moved to work in policy, initially as a job-share on secondment. Rianis is the policy lead for IP enforcement in East Asia and the online environment; she also leads the civil, digital, and border IP enforcement sections of UK Free Trade Agreements. Rianis has been part of the IPOs neurodiversity network iThink since it was founded in 2017 and sits on the steering group. Outside of work she loves playing Dungeons and Dragons and hiking with her black Labrador Sherlock. She lives near Merthyr Tydfil with her younger brother. Rianis is Autistic and Dyslexic (both diagnoses received after joining the IPO) and is currently waiting for an ADHD assessment.

Henrietta Rooney, Elkington and Fife LLP

Henrietta is a patent attorney at Elkington + Fife LLP, working in the Life Science sector and is a professional member of the IPReg Board. Henrietta has been involved in education and training for patent attorneys since 2008.  She was formerly an FD4 examiner and tutors for the FD4 exam and EQE Paper C.

As a member of the IPReg Board, Henrietta will be involved in the Education Review which seeks to ensure the qualification routes into the patent attorney and trade mark attorney professions remain up-to-date and responsive to changes in professional practice, employer and consumer needs.