Posted: Friday, 4 January 2019 @ 13:43
Congratulations to my friend and the author, Shireen Smith, who is a solicitor with over 25 years ago and in 2005 founded Azrights, a niche Intellectual Property and Internet law firm specialising in online brand issues.
She has just had her book , Legally Branded published.
Shireen's interests are broad and varied, and though her focus lies firmly on IP, Internet, and branding she previously qualified as a journalist at the London College of Printing, has raised two inspirational daughters, and lectured in business law.
Having had an international upbringing, Shireen at one time even considered becoming a professional linguist, before deciding on a career as a lawyer.
After graduating in law from East Anglia University Shireen worked both in industry (at Coopers & Lybrand and Reuters) and in private practice (at Overbury, Steward and Eaton in Norwich, and Eversheds in London) handling commercial subjects like tax, employment law, media and technology law, before focusing on technology contracts and intellectual property during her 5 years in-house at Reuters. Having developed an interest in the field, Shireen completed a Masters degree in Intellectual Property Law at London University's Queen Mary and Westfield Commercial Law Unit in 1996. At the time QMW was one of the foremost places to study the subject.
Shireen is now a member of, among others, the Society for Computers and Law, the International Division of the Law Society, and the International Trade Mark Association, where she sits on the Internet Committee.
Aside from prolific writing on her various blogs, Shireen's work has been published by the Society for Computers and Law, Caritas, Bloomsbury's QFinance to which she contributed a chapter on Cybersquatting, and the recent Reputation Management: Building and Protecting Your Company's Profile in a Digital World. Shireen has also chaired and been a regular speaker at conferences held by Central Law Training, part of the Wilmington group of over 16 companies, and a leader in the field of professional education. Separately, Shireen ran workshops at the British Library for two years, helping entrepreneurs to realise their ambitions, and has given a number of talks at the LSE.
Shireen is interested in entrepreneurship, new technology and how the internet and social media are transforming the business landscape. She is part owner of a digital media business with her husband. The business focuses on online marketing and social media for professional services businesses.
I have known Shireen for a number of years and heartily recommend her intellectual property services.
Justin Patten, Solicitor