This is a specialist leadership role accountable for the IP Law function within Protect Delivery. The Head of IP Law strengthens regulatory and jurisdictional insight across Protect, enabling proactive compliance and a deeper understanding of evolving statutory, procedural and filing requirements across all markets in which we operate.
The role serves as the legal authority underpinning enterprise IP processes and is responsible for enabling the “law engine” that powers our technology-enabled solutions – ensuring that jurisdictional rules, deadlines, fee structures and procedural logic are accurately codified, maintained and embedded into our platforms. The role leads a team of IP paralegals and legal researchers, operating as a shared enabling capability within the IP Ops Hub in partnership with Business IP Service Owners and Regional Service Leaders.
About Protect
We help Protect our customers’ ideas and innovations
Main Duties & Responsibilities | |
Regulatory Insight & Jurisdictional Intelligence | Strengthen regulatory insight across Protect by monitoring, interpreting and communicating changes to IP laws, rules, procedures and fees across all relevant jurisdictions. Maintain an authoritative, up-to-date knowledge base of jurisdictional requirements covering filing, prosecution, renewals, recordals and related IP procedures. Enable proactive compliance by translating evolving statutory and procedural requirements into clear, actionable guidance for service lines, regional teams and technology platforms. Provide early warning of legislative, treaty and procedural change (e.g. new IP offices, fee changes, deadline rule changes), assessing operational and client impact and coordinating response. Develop a deeper organisational understanding of evolving jurisdictional requirements through training, briefings and knowledge sharing. |
Law Engine & Solution Enablement | Enable the legal “law engine” that powers our technology-enabled solutions, ensuring jurisdictional rules, deadlines, fee schedules and procedural logic are accurately codified and maintained. Partner with Technology, Product and Data, Analytics & Automation teams to embed legal rules and compliance logic into core fulfilment systems and client-facing platforms. Validate and govern the legal accuracy of automated rules, calculations and workflows, providing sign-off and ongoing assurance as rules change. Define and maintain the framework for capturing, updating and version-controlling jurisdictional rules so that the law engine remains a single, trusted source of legal truth. Act as the legal subject matter expert in solution design, advising on how procedural and statutory requirements should be reflected in product features and roadmaps. |
Compliance & Risk Management | Own the legal compliance framework for IP processes across Protect Delivery, ensuring enterprise processes meet applicable statutory and procedural obligations. Identify, assess and escalate legal and regulatory risks, working with Business IP Service Owners and Regional Service Leaders to implement mitigation and controls. Support governance and audit activities, ensuring procedures, controls and records meet professional, regulatory and client requirements. Advise on data protection, confidentiality, conflicts and professional conduct considerations relevant to the delivery of IP services. Maintain awareness of relevant treaties, conventions and regional frameworks (e.g. PCT, Madrid, Hague, EPC) and their operational implications. |
Legal Research & Advisory | Direct and quality-assure legal and jurisdictional research undertaken by the IP Law team in support of service lines, clients and solutions. Provide authoritative legal interpretation and advice on complex or non-standard IP procedural matters referred from regional teams or Business IP Service Owners. Develop standardised legal research methodologies, templates and knowledge assets to ensure consistency, accuracy and efficiency. Support clients and internal stakeholders with clear, practical legal guidance that balances compliance with commercial and operational objectives. |
People Leadership | Lead, develop and inspire a team of IP paralegals and legal researchers, building capability through coaching, mentoring and structured development. Manage resource planning, workload allocation and capacity to meet the legal research and rule-maintenance demands of the enterprise. Promote a culture of accuracy, accountability, continuous learning and professional rigour within the IP Law team. Ensure the team is equipped with the tools, training and knowledge required to support evolving service and technology models. |
Cross-Functional Collaboration | Operate as an enabling capability within the IP Ops Hub, partnering with Business IP Service Owners (Filing, Renewals, Recordals, Translations) and Regional Service Leaders. Partner with Technology, Product and Innovation teams to align legal requirements with the technology roadmap and emerging solutions. Work with Training & Governance to embed legal and regulatory knowledge across regional operational teams. Collaborate with Finance, Payments and supply chain functions on fee accuracy, jurisdictional cost structures and official fee management. Engage with external counsel, IP offices, agents and professional bodies where required to validate or clarify jurisdictional requirements. |
Performance & Continuous Improvement | Define and monitor KPIs for the IP Law function, including rule accuracy, research turnaround, compliance coverage and law-engine currency. Drive continuous improvement of legal research, rule maintenance and compliance processes, leveraging automation and analytics where appropriate. Capture and apply learnings from regulatory change, audits and incidents to strengthen processes and reduce risk. Contribute legal and compliance insight to enterprise-level reporting and governance forums. |
Culture | Foster a trusting and collaborative work environment that encourages professional growth and self-development. Promote a culture of continuous learning, integrity and professional excellence within the team. Lead by example, demonstrating the values and behaviours that reflect RWS’s commitment to quality, integrity and client excellence. Encourage open communication and psychological safety, ensuring team members feel empowered to raise ideas, concerns and feedback. |
Experience & Skills | |
Experience & Skills | A qualified paralegal, IP professional or legally-trained specialist with significant experience in IP law and procedure (a recognised IP/legal qualification is advantageous). A minimum of five (5) years of experience in an IP legal, paralegal or regulatory role, ideally within the IP industry or a professional services environment. Deep working knowledge of IP filing, prosecution, renewals and recordals procedures across multiple jurisdictions, including key treaties and conventions (e.g. PCT, Madrid, Hague, EPC). Demonstrable experience interpreting and applying complex jurisdictional rules, deadlines and fee structures. Experience codifying or maintaining legal/procedural rules within technology platforms, rules engines or automated workflows is highly advantageous. Proven ability to lead and develop a team of paralegals or legal researchers. Ability to operate effectively in a matrix organisation, partnering with peer Global leaders and cross-functional teams. Experience working with technology, product, data and operational teams to translate legal requirements into solutions. Strong analytical, problem-solving and attention-to-detail capabilities, with a rigorous and accurate approach. Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to explain complex legal matters clearly to non-legal stakeholders. Ability to prioritise and multi-task in a fast-paced environment, managing competing demands with confidence. A self-starter, capable of working autonomously and navigating complex cross-functional and stakeholder environments. |
Life at RWS - If you like the idea of working with smart people who are passionate about growing the value of ideas, data and content by making sure organizations are understood, then you’ll love life at RWS.
Our purpose is to unlock global understanding. This means our work fundamentally recognizes the value of every language and culture. So, we celebrate difference, we are inclusive and believe that diversity makes us strong. We want every employee to grow as an individual and excel in their career.
In return, we expect all our people to live by the values that unite us: to partner, putting clients fist and winning together, to pioneer, innovating fearlessly and leading with vision and courage, to progress, aiming high and growing through actions and to deliver, owning the outcome and building trust with our colleagues and clients.
RWS embraces DEI and promotes equal opportunity, we are an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. RWS is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at RWS are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation. RWS will not tolerate discrimination based on any of these characteristics.
RWS Values
Get the 3Ps right – Partner, Pioneer, Progress – and we´ll Deliver together as RWS.
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