Slavery Act

Introduction

Mewburn Ellis is committed to the prevention of modern-day slavery and human trafficking within the firm and the UK. Therefore, we endeavour to uphold the core principles of “The Modern Slavery Act 2015” within the firm’s activities and relationships.

The Firm

Mewburn Ellis is an independent professional services firm within the Intellectual Property sector, providing advice on obtaining, enforcing and exploiting intellectual property rights.

We are a Limited Liability Partnership incorporated in England and Wales registered number OC306749. The registered office is City Tower, 40 Basinghall Street, London, EC2V 5DE. The firm is owned by its working Partners and has 316 employees including its Members (correct as of March 2022), all of whom are based in one of our four UK offices or our German office. The firm has an annual turnover of £70m.

Mewburn Ellis is regulated by the following professional bodies and codes:

• Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg)
• Rules of Conduct for Patent Attorneys, Trademark Attorneys and other Regulated persons.
• Code of conduct of the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office.

Policies on Slavery and Human Trafficking

The firm reflects its commitment to the prevention of slavery and human trafficking in the following ways:-

• Paying staff fairly for their work
• Paying staff above the Minimum Living Wage
• Acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships.

Recruitment

The majority of the Mewburn Ellis’ workforce are employed directly and on a permanent basis. Recruitment takes place through direct advertising on our website, reputable agencies and on referrals from employees within our firm.

Mewburn Ellis only use specified, reputable employment agencies and has a set of standard terms and conditions of business with each agency.

New employees are subject to security checks to ensure they are genuine applicants operating as free agents. These checks include verification of identity, references and evidence of qualifications.

When occasional ad-hoc vacancies within our firm are filled by contractors or agency workers, we ensure that the same checks are carried out as would be for permanent employees. We do this by obtaining written confirmation from the agencies that appropriate checks have been carried out and the outcomes are satisfactory.

Goods

Goods purchased by Mewburn Ellis include basic office necessities including general office stationery and IT software / hardware. Cleaning services provided at each of our UK offices are supplied by UK based companies. We therefore deem our suppliers to be a low risk in relation to slavery and human trafficking.

Supply Chain

Mewburn Ellis’ supply chain in relation to its services consists on the whole of other regulated professional services. Mewburn Ellis considers these to be very low risk in relation to slavery and human trafficking, so no specific action is taken with regard to these relationships.

Given Mewburn Ellis’ understanding of our supply chain and the nature of our business, we believe there is a very low risk of slavery or human trafficking having a connection with the firm’s activities. For this reason, no such training is implemented for our staff in relation to these matters.

Our Commitment

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Mewburn Ellis’ slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31st March 2023.

See our full Modern Slavery Act 2015 Statement.