Lewis Silkin LLP has announced the appointment of three new partners—David Swain, Geraint Tilsley and Antony Craggs—marking a significant expansion to the firm’s intellectual property and corporate practices globally.
David Swain joins the firm as head of intellectual property in the Hong Kong office, where he will be leading the launch of the firm’s intellectual property practice in Asia and advising on a range of non-contentious IP issues across all IP assets, from patents and trademarks to design rights and copyright. In addition to his core IP expertise, he has notable experience in data and privacy law and has worked across numerous sectors including tech, life sciences, media and entertainment, and gaming. He will sit on Lewis Silkin’s China desk alongside colleagues in the UK, Ireland and Hong Kong, and also work closely with employment partners Kathryn Weaver (head of the Hong Kong office) and Catherine Leung to enhance the firm’s stature across the Asia-Pacific region. He joins Lewis Silkin from the law firm Deacons.
Geraint Tilsley will oversee the expansion of the firm’s corporate services into the Cardiff office. He has extensive experience in advising clients on a broad range of corporate finance matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity and corporate governance, both in the UK and internationally. As the firm’s first corporate partner in Cardiff, Geraint will drive the practice’s regional growth while working closely with the London corporate team to provide expertise to clients nationwide. He joins Lewis Silkin from the law firm Geldards, where he was a partner.
Antony Craggs joins the London office as a specialist in transactional and contentious IP matters, boosting the firm’s IP disputes capabilities, particularly for patent litigation. He has extensive experience of leading litigation in the UK, both before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and Patents Court, and managing complex cross-jurisdictional disputes in Europe and the US, including before the European Patent Office and European Union Intellectual Property Office. Antony has a wide range of sector experience and has been heavily involved in advising on licensing agreements and litigation on patents in the telecoms sector. He joins Lewis Silkin from D Young & Co, having spent four years as partner.
Giles Crown, joint managing partner at Lewis Silkin, said: ‘Lewis Silkin has always had the ambition of helping businesses make the most of their two main assets: their ideas and their people. In line with that, the addition of David, Geraint and Antony to the team will offer fresh opportunities to new and existing clients alike, bolstering our intellectual property and corporate services globally. More specifically, David and Geraint’s hires offer a new line of possibilities to our clients in Hong Kong and Cardiff on IP and corporate matters respectively, while Antony’s arrival further strengthens our full-range IP360 offering.
‘2020 was no doubt a challenging year, but we remain resilient and quietly confident about the future. As a firm, we are determined to keep bringing in new talent in order to provide the highest level of service to our clients in our chosen sectors and markets. We’re kicking off 2021 on the front foot, and look forward to the contributions from David, Geraint and Antony to help achieve significant growth in the year to come.’
