Managing Partner Andrew Clay is a solicitor. Andrew has a first class honour science degree from St. Andrews University (1985). He qualified as a solicitor in 1991 with City firm Herbert Smith. He returned to Yorkshire in 1993 spending more than 25 years, as a specialist intellectual property lawyer, with  the law firm Hammonds. Hammonds subsequently became, after a number of mergers, Squire Patton Boggs. Squire Patton Boggs is one of the World’s best and largest law firms with over 1600 lawyers in 47 offices in 20 countries. Andrew became a partner with the firm in 1997 and head of the firm’s prestigious and well-known IP Department in 2002.

Andrew left Squire Patton Boggs in 2018, after more than twenty years at partner level, to set up Andrew Clay Legal.

In May 2016 Andrew was appointed by the Lord Chancellor as one of the two deputy chairmen of the Copyright Tribunal, a specialist IP court that hears certain kinds of copyright disputes. Andrew’s role is as a specialist judge.

Andrew has been acknowledged as an expert in his field (intellectual property law) by both Legal 500 and the Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession. In Chambers, Andrew is quoted by his clients as being a “dynamic and highly competent practitioner” and in the Legal 500 his clients describe him as “responsive, and shows great attention to detail” and “renowned for his ability to easily identify key issues in a matter”.

Andrew is one of the contributing editors of the CIPA Guide to the Patents Act, the authoritative text on the 1977 Patents Act, the key legislation that regulates patent law in the UK.

Andrew is frequently asked to speak at IP conferences and has written many articles on IP law issues.

Andrew’s professional memberships include CIPA and ITMA.

Unlike the vast majority of IP lawyers Andrew has a great deal of hands on experience actually running businesses which are trying to take new technology to market. Andrew has, for example, been since 2012 a director of Fripura Limited, a company developing new technology relating to the frying of food, and is the sole named inventor of numerous of the company’s patents.