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Rachel Armstrong returns to Gowling WLG Dubai as IP partner
02 March 2023
Rachel Armstrong has returned to Gowling WLG’s Dubai office as a partner in its global intellectual property team.
Rejoining the firm’s team of 12 UAE-based IP professionals, led by partner Jon Parker, Armstrong adds strength at a senior level. She returns to the firm after two years as senior legal counsel at the award-winning Dubai Future Foundation, where she led the IP strategy to support Dubai’s vision of becoming one of the world’s foremost future cities, as well as a leading tech and innovation centre.
She is an experienced IP practitioner, advising clients on commercial IP matters, contentious IP matters, IP portfolio management, and IP strategies work across the MENA region and globally. Her work includes advising some of the world’s most prominent companies, predominantly in the leisure, entertainment, fashion, e-commerce, technology and FMCG sectors, and more recently government entities and research and development labs.
“Following an invaluable two years spent as part of Dubai Future Foundation’s award-winning legal team, which included being part of the team during the launch Dubai’s iconic Museum of the Future in 2022, I am thrilled to be rejoining Gowling WLG’s MENA IP team as a partner,” Armstrong said. “I am looking forward to continuing to build on the team’s fantastic success and ensuring the practice continues to go from strength to strength.”
Jon Parker, head of Gowling WLG’s MENA IP practice said: “I am delighted that Rachel is rejoining our UAE practice. Her return as a partner is a reflection of her hard work and dedication during the 10 years she has been practicing in the UAE. The work she has been doing on government-level strategic IP work, together with the skills she will bring to our growing tech transfer and innovation practice, means we have an exciting time ahead of us.”
This latest hire follows the ongoing growth of the firm’s UAE IP team. In late 2022 Samantha Yung joined as a senior associate from Deacons in Hong Kong. She is a China-qualified lawyer and brings with her experience of a wide range of IP matters as well as Mandarin and Cantonese language skills. Nart Nashko also joined as an experienced IP paralegal from a leading Dubai-based firm. The hires mean the team has doubled in size in the past two years.
