As a final‑seat trainee at an international law firm, currently on client secondment, I spend much of my time thinking about IP.
My route into IP, however, did not begin in a law library. It began in a lab, pipette in hand, surrounded by zebrafish and fluorescent neurons, trying to understand behavioural genetics without accidentally compromising an experiment.
I studied psychology and neuroscience at university and worked in a neurobiology and behavioural genetics lab alongside my degree.
My dissertation explored how developmental exposure to nicotine affects anxiety‑like behaviour and neural circuitry, the sort of sentence that either sparks genuine interest or immediately ends a conversation at a dinner party.
The work involved plasmids, c‑fos as a marker for neuronal activity and composite staining techniques. Yes, there is still a framed image of my findings somewhere in my house. No, my family do not fully understand it either.
What stayed with me most from that experience, though, was an appreciation for the creativity, precision and persistence behind innovation.
Scientific discovery is rarely a single breakthrough moment. More often, it is the product of years of experimentation, failed attempts, collaboration and lots of curiosity. It is also usually accompanied by at least one mild lab‑related existential crisis. Behind every new development lies enormous intellectual and financial investment. IP plays a critical role in ensuring that innovation can be protected, commercialised and, ultimately, brought into everyday life.
Natural alignment
Over time, I also began to recognise that my unique way of thinking aligned naturally with IP work. I tend to approach problems by diving deeply into detail, making connections across technical concepts and becoming completely absorbed in understanding how things work.
IP felt like the first area of law where that way of thinking was not just useful, but genuinely valuable. It also possessed a certain je ne sais quoi that other practice areas lacked for me: technical complexity, creative thinking and a level of commercial realism that I hadn’t seen elsewhere.
A legal career had always been the long‑term goal, so after university, I completed the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course, where I found myself repeatedly gravitating towards IP.
The subject sat at the intersection of everything I enjoyed most: science, technology, creativity and commercial strategy.
Unlike some areas of law that felt static on the page, IP felt alive. It evolves alongside innovation itself, which is fortunate, because my attention span has always preferred emerging technologies to land law.
My training contract gave me exposure to sectors that genuinely interested me, particularly technology, media and life sciences, and completing the firm’s IP seat confirmed what I had quietly suspected from my very first IP lecture: this was the area of law I kept coming back to.
Impossible to ignore
What surprised me most during my seat was how impossible IP becomes to ignore once you start looking for it.
A supermarket shelf, a social media app or a child’s toy box quickly becomes a catalogue of trademarks, designs and branding strategy. This extends beyond physical products into the digital space. Graphical user interfaces, from app layouts and icons to visual workflows, raise fascinating questions about where design, functionality and user experience intersect with IP protection. Having spent years studying how humans process visual information, it has been particularly interesting to see how the law grapples with interfaces that feel intuitive and familiar precisely because they work so well.
Working in IP has fundamentally changed the way I look at the world. I can no longer walk through a supermarket or scroll through social media without wondering what might be protected and why. I suspect this is either professional development or a very niche form of brain rot.
One of the things I enjoy about IP is its breadth. On one day, discussions may centre on branding strategy or copyright disputes; on another, the focus may shift to artificial intelligence or emerging technologies. No two developments ever look quite the same, which is part of what makes the field so engaging. It is also why I enjoy writing about IP developments from a trainee perspective: partly to share insights, and partly because these issues are often too interesting not to talk about.
My secondment experience has only reinforced how commercially and culturally embedded IP really is. Supporting brands in relation to marketing activations has provided a fascinating insight into how trademarks, branding and consumer engagement intersect in practice. It has also highlighted how IP sits far beyond the courtroom and shapes the way global brands connect with audiences in real time.
At the same time, I still enjoy the more technical side of IP and the challenge of grappling with complex legal questions.
Being able to contribute, even in a small way, to discussions connected to AI patentability before the UK Supreme Court was an especially memorable experience.
I supported an intervention on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and the IP Federation in the UK Supreme Court case Emotional Perception AI v UKIPO. It reinforced what I find most compelling about IP: the opportunity to engage with legal and technological developments as they unfold.
Somewhere between fluorescent neuron imaging, supermarket trademark spotting and discussions around AI patentability, I realised I had found my version of the Jedi path (albeit with fewer lightsabers and considerably more document review!).
That, ultimately, is what appeals to me most about IP law.
IP lawyers sit at the intersection of law, science, technology and creativity, often grappling with questions that did not even exist a decade ago.
The subject matter may have changed, but the curiosity and the slightly obsessive need to understand interesting problems certainly has not.
Shaina Haria is a final‑seat trainee solicitor, currently on client secondment. She has a background in psychology and neuroscience and a particular interest in IP and emerging technologies.
