Meet The Team: Kimberley Harding, IP Support, Paralegal

As part of our 'meet the team' series, we talk to paralegal, Kim Harding about studying for patent administration qualifications, knowing clients inside out and winding down with a good book. 

Back when she was at school Kim considered going into childcare or hairdressing but the more she thought about it, the more she realised it was the businesses themselves and the organisational side of those jobs that interested her.

When she left school, she went to college and took a secretarial course before looking for a job. “I had no idea what I wanted to do but sent my CV to some recruiters and found out about a secretarial role at Mewburn Ellis,” she says. “Until then I had no idea what IP was.”

She joined the firm 18 years ago and spent two years training. “Back then we were working with paper files which seems crazy now,” says Kim. “Since we modernised our ways of working, we are so much more efficient.”

When the firm made changes to its administrative teams to incorporate a paralegal role, Kim was one of the first to take it up. “Interviewing for that job was terrifying,” Kim remembers. “It had been so many years since I had done something like that – Mewburn Ellis was the first and only place I’d ever worked except for my Saturday job.”

In 2017, Kim took the introductory CIPA course in patent administration and was surprised to be awarded the Brown award for achieving the highest mark in her year. After her promotion to paralegal, she took on further advanced training, studying for the European Patent Administration Certification (EPAC) held by the European Patent Office. “It was considerably harder than anything I had done previously,” admits Kim. “I managed to pass – I think it made it easier that a few of us were studying so we could help and support each other.”

Learning on the job

Before she began her studies, everything Kim knew had been learnt on the job. “The approach to learning is much more structured now,” she explains. “It’s nice to be able to get a formal explanation of why patent application processes are the way they are. Before, work was done in a more piecemeal way, but now we are trained on every part of the process, so I work on a patent from start to finish, following it through its journey.”

Mewburn Ellis has grown significantly in recent years, recruiting more specialist business services staff. “We now have people specialising in business services roles like HR and marketing,” says Kim. “It used to be that everyone got involved in areas like these but now the lines are much clearer and people can get on with what they do best.”

Kim enjoys being an expert in her area. “Most of my time at work is spent on the same client,” she explains. “I know them inside out and can answer any questions colleagues might have about them and how they like things to be done. I much prefer being able to focus on a single, large client.”

That knowledge sees Kim working more independently than in the past. “I can take decisions about the work I am doing without needing to check in with anyone,” she says. “I feel very comfortable at the firm and that I know my job well.”

Prioritising 

Her main client has a lot of very specific preferences and processes, so Kim recently put together a detailed client preference guide for them. “I was really pleased with it,” she says. “I update the guide regularly and it means that even if I’m not here and others need to pick up work on my client, it’s very clear what needs to be done and how.”

The hardest part of her job is juggling the work. “There can be up to 25 attorneys working with my client at any one time, as well as US attorneys who I work indirectly with,” she explains. “The attorneys might not necessarily realise how much I have on, so I have to manage expectations about what I can deliver.”

In the office Kim is known for her organisational skills and patience but at home, she says, it’s a different story. “I’m far less organised in my home life. When it comes to making sure dinner money is paid or that the kids take their PE kit to school on the right days, it is usually a mad last minute rush. Perhaps I use up all my organisational abilities at work!” 

Her six- and nine-year-old children take up a lot of her time. “With swimming lessons, cubs, rainbows and various other activities, I spend much of my time taking them to where they need to be,” she says. “We also take them camping every few weekends and visit a local theme park near Exeter which is great fun.”

When she gets time to herself, she likes to wind down and read romance novels. “They are somewhat predictable, but you know there will be a happy ending!” says Kim.