Des founded Burley Law in 2014 to provide personal and pragmatic, expert IP and technology law advice. He qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales before the Y2K bug, the dotcom boom or the Blackberry, in the same year that the first MP3 player was launched. Over twenty years on in a world that is now shaped and driven by technology, his legal practice now focuses on intellectual property protection, IT and technology contracts, international trade mark advice, data protection law and commercialisation of university-generated intellectual property.
Clients generally have technology, innovation or a strong brand identity at their core. They are often owner-managed and fast-growing and range from start-ups and spin-outs, to universities, providers of online services and fashion brands. Des has extensive experience of advising online training providers, and universities on IP commercialisation and technology – and on a broad range of IP and data protection issues in corporate transactions.
Des studied chemistry at The Queen’s College, Oxford before training as a solicitor. He went on to work at national and international law firms advising on intellectual property, technology law and information law. He was a partner at a national law firm for a number of years and then head of trade marks at a national patent attorney practice before he founded Burley Law.
Des has been a visiting university lecturer on IP on MBA courses, is actively involved in providing support to start-up incubator programmes and provides online training through a trust that supports organisations looking to use digital technologies to scale-up numbers of adult learners gaining vocational skills. He has worked on secondment with an e-commerce start-up and also with research-intensive universities.
Des is appreciated by his clients for his depth of expertise coupled with his straightforward approach to resolving commercial legal problems.
In his spare time, Des is a keen competitive swimmer and enjoys watching cricket.