Supporting your development is paramount to us; our Academy is only the beginning!
As IP experts who value innovation as highly as you do, we want to empower you to realise your ideas and ambitions. To this end, we provide unparalleled support from industry experts from your very first week with us!
Training is in our DNA. In the 1860s, our original founders, Haseltine and Lake, believed in and trained the next generation of patent attorneys, many of whom went on to be at the forefront of the patent profession. We have continued this tradition of training, and in 2013 we launched our Academy, which is an in-house training school set up to support early stage patent training.
The academy is split into two semesters. During the first semester, sessions are held twice weekly and delivered by a faculty of experienced IP practitioners. You’ll undertake practical classroom-based learning on a range of core patent concepts and skills that enable you to contribute to your team early on. The second semester sessions are held twice-monthly providing you the opportunity to consolidate core skills and consider some challenging new IP issues in greater depth.
The Academy is one of the things that makes a traineeship with HLK unique, here's why:
"It's great to start as part of a cohort, attending academy sessions with trainees from across the firm allows you the opportunity to discuss tasks you've been assigned and your development early on in your career." - Luke Jones, Trainee Patent Attorney.
"The HLK Academy is a brilliant training scheme allowing experienced attorneys to share their knowledge with those new to the IP profession. I've been teaching at the Academy from its outset in 2013, and I find it incredibly rewarding to witness the trainees' development journey on their way to qualifying, and celebrating their successes with them." - David Hammond, Partner.
Our trainees achieve very high pass rates.
Our Academy continues beyond these initial programmes and provides comprehensive support to our trainees in the run up to the Foundations and Finals examinations, including in-house tutorials for examination preparation, residential revision courses and generous study leave.
Thanks to this support, we have had some impressive exam results since Academy was launched. The UK patent examinations are notoriously tough, but our trainees have excelled in the Foundations and Finals examinations with very high pass rates compared to other firms.
