Mewburn Ellis
Firm overview:
Mewburn Ellis re-enters the rankings following a period of significant investment that has broadened its capabilities beyond an already established prosecution practice. Patent drafting and portfolio management remain central to the firm, but the recruitment of dedicated patent litigation leadership and expansion of its Unified Patent Court (UPC) offering point to a practice adapting to clients’ needs for more integrated IP services. A peer highlights Mewburn Ellis as “a very strong firm with a great client roster”.
Team overview:
Formerly a partner at Carpmaels & Ransford, Camilla Balleny joined the firm in May 2025 as head of patent litigation. Balleny has more than two decades of experience in patent and supplementary protection certificate (SPC) litigation, particularly on behalf of life science and healthcare companies.
Also previously at Carpmaels, Susannah Dragosavac and Aled Richards-Jones joined the team as partners last year; Dragosavac is a UK and European patent attorney in the engineering and technology team. Richards-Jones is an experienced IP litigator with a focus on life sciences patent and SPC litigation.
The firm also welcomed Amy Crouch from Simmons & Simmons; Crouch is also an accomplished patent litigator with experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
Key matters:
- Bristol Myers Squibb/2seventy bio: UPC CAR-T cell therapy litigation
Mewburn Ellis represents Bristol Myers Squibb-backed 2seventy bio in one of the UPC’s most significant early biotechnology disputes, enforcing a unitary patent covering BCMA-targeted CAR-T cell therapy across parallel UPC, UK and EPO proceedings.
- Alchemab Therapeutics: $415 million licensing transaction
The team advised Alchemab Therapeutics on its $415 million licensing agreement with Eli Lilly for ATLX-1282, a first-in-class antibody therapy targeting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases.
- Singzyme: Patent strategy and biotechnology licensing dispute
Mewburn Ellis advises biotech startup Singzyme on IP strategy, patent protection and commercial licensing, and helped resolve a patent licence dispute through SIAC arbitration.
Clients:
Alchemy Therapeutics, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Singzyme
