International law firm Bird & Bird has appointed Vicky Laws as its first Head of Valuations & Damages in London.
Vicky joins from a partnership position at FTI Consulting and brings almost twenty years’ experience of valuing intellectual property rights, businesses and shares, and calculating damages for disputes. In recent years, Vicky has focused on FRAND disputes covering both cellular and non-cellular standards in litigation and international arbitration. She has been instructed in over 20 FRAND matters, including major High Court disputes addressing comparables, top down and smallest saleable patent practising unit (SSPPU) analysis, among other issues.
Her work as an expert spans damages calculations, account of profits, reasonable royalty assessments, lost profits, shareholder disputes, expropriation claims, high-net-worth family disputes, and breach of contract, across a wide range of jurisdictions and sectors. These include banking, hedge funds, and asset management; energy; pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and medical devices; as well as retail and consumer goods.
Bird & Bird’s Tech litigation team have been at the forefront of FRAND litigation and arbitration for over 20 years, during which they developed an award- winning specialist patent intelligence team (Pattern), focused on patent profiling and assisting in the valuation of SEP portfolios. Vicky will provide added expertise in this area. As damages inquiries also become more common (Bird & Bird’s London IP department being involved in five in the last three years), having a damages expert in-house will enable clients to more readily assess potential damages awards or exposure at an early stage to feed into their litigation strategy. Her expertise will also enable clients to negotiate licence valuations more robustly.
Richard Vary commented: “Having worked with Vicky for many years, first when I was inhouse and then as a partner at Bird & Bird, I value her clear and unflappable approach to any valuation matter. Regardless of the value involved and however tight the deadline, Vicky always provides quality advice. I look forward to working alongside her to enhance our client offering.”
Rebecca O’Kelly-Gillard and Tom Snaith, co-heads of IP in London, said: “We are delighted to welcome Vicky to the team. Her appointment marks an exciting step forward for the London IP Group, which regularly advises on FRAND valuation issues and related disputes. As valuation becomes increasingly central to our clients’ needs across the full spectrum of IP rights, bringing in-house a leading valuation expert enhances the depth and efficiency of our service. It ensures we can continue to deliver the highest quality advice on valuation matters, reinforcing Bird & Bird’s reputation as a leader in the IP space.”
Vicky adds: “As IP-driven business models evolve, clients need rigorous, transparent valuation and damages analysis. I’m looking forward to working across disputes, licensing and transactions, helping clients understand the financial consequences behind their most important IP and telecoms issues. Bird & Bird’s strength in IP and telecoms provides an ideal platform for this, and I’m delighted to join the team.
