Lloyd Hoarton hands over to Matt Shaw as managing partner of Forresters

Forresters’ managing partner Lloyd Hoarton is retiring this month, after nearly three decades with the leading firm of patent and trade mark attorneys.

Lloyd joined the company 29 years ago as a trainee patent attorney and says he has seen incredible changes in the profession. He leaves on March 31st and his successor will be Matt Shaw, who is based at the firm’s Birmingham office.

Lloyd said: “When I joined as a trainee in 1992 everyone was dictating onto tape and we joked about previous generations who had dictated onto wax cylinders, now it’s straight into your phone – the firm has seen some huge changes over the last few decades. I was responsible for installing the first computer with email and internet access at Forresters using a screechy dial-up modem for patent searching.”

Lloyd said he has always enjoyed working for the firm, which has recently been recognised as one of Europe’s Leading Patent Law Firms, in the prestigious Financial Times listing.

“It has been a brilliant job, which I have enjoyed very much and continue to enjoy after all these years,” he said. “I’m lucky enough to have generated patents protecting technologies in the medical environment, which have greatly improved the quality of life for a lot of people. They have helped get people with significant pain back to enjoying an almost normal lifestyle – those technologies made a dramatic difference to their lives. These inventions wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without the patents. I’ve also seen lots of fantastic companies grow and succeed thanks to Forresters securing patents and trade marks for them.”

One of the first orders of business following his retirement is visiting friends that he’s met through work. “Through the profession I’ve met lots of people around the world and I have several long-standing invites,” he said. “As soon as we can all start travelling again I’m hoping to make good on those invitations, starting with South Africa and the US.

“I want to spend more time with my family and also get more involved in a few community activities. I have been at Forresters ‘man and boy’ for 29 years, but now I am looking forward to spending my time in retirement doing exclusively non-IP things.”

Forresters has sponsored the Winchester Pedal Paddle Pace (PPP) charity event for the last few years and this has seen Lloyd taking part in the unique triathlon. He says in retirement he will be doing more cycling, tennis and golf – but anyone who has ever met Lloyd, however briefly, will know that he’ll be in the mountains whenever possible.

The majority of Forresters’ employees have been working remotely for the last year and Matt Shaw said they will miss giving Lloyd a proper send-off. “It has been a real pleasure to work with Lloyd, whose outstanding knowledge and experience have strengthened our reputation as one of the world’s leading IP firms,” he said.

“Lloyd trained with Forresters, and so learned from the beginning our core value of putting the clients’ needs first, with a personal and friendly approach. Over the last year the pandemic has meant that we’ve had to make more than a few adjustments, but our commitment to offering clear, easy to understand advice to our clients will never change. We have all valued Lloyd’s wise counsel and instrumental contributions, and he will be greatly missed.”