Simmons & Simmons

Firm overview:

Clients value the convenience of Simmons & Simmons’ one-stop-shop approach to intellectual property, which extends to trade secrets matters. Trade secrets specialists work alongside patent attorneys to devise tailored IP protection strategies; IP transactional lawyers address the licensing of trade secrets and management of sensitive know-how in complex transactions; and trade secrets litigators defend and enforce claims in multiple jurisdictions.

When disputes involve former employees, the firm’s Business Protection Unit (comprising litigators from across the IP, employment and commercial teams) delivers multi-disciplinary solutions and an incident response plan. The international trade secrets litigation team has acted on some of the largest cases in recent years, including the hard-fought dispute between Boston Scientific and Nevro that resulted in an $85 million settlement, and one of the first trade secrets cases under the new German Trade Secret Act between id-Tecknik and DutchClamp.

Simmons & Simmons assists with issues pertaining to the preservation of evidence on electronic devices, drawing on the expertise of in-house legal engineers and data scientists at Simmons Wavelength— the result of the 2019 acquisition of legal engineering firm Wavelength. The firm educates clients on trade secrets matters through workshops, such as one organised by the Paris team for a group of hospitals in June 2025.

Team overview:

Simmons & Simmons’ international trade secrets team is a key part of its wider cross-border IP team and comprises at least 27 lawyers across six offices. Almost half of the IP team is based in the UK, and the firm has trade secrets expertise in offices based in Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, and China.

Priya Nagpal (London) heads the trade secrets practice in the UK and has two decades of experience of handling multi-jurisdictional, technology-related IP disputes, covering both trade secrets and patents. Clients she has represented in recent high-value trade secrets cases include multinational IT services and consulting company DXC Technology and private equity firm Synova Capital.

A specialist in contentious IP matters, Joel Smith joined the firm in October 2024 from Hogan Lovells. As well as handling disputes involving trade secrets and confidential information, Smith is involved in drafting policies and structuring the protection of trade secrets in IP transactions.

Key team members in other jurisdictions include Sarah Bailey (Paris), Stefania Bergia and Giulio Sironi (Milan), Oscar Lamme (Amsterdam) and George Chan (Beijing).

The firm has also set up a joint operation with Shanghai YaoWang Law Offices, a local Chinese firm set up by former partners of Simmons & Simmons in Shanghai. James Wang, a partner in the dispute resolution group of YaoWang, has litigated trade secrets and other IP-related cases in China for more than 15 years.

Key matters:

• Trade secrets dispute involving a well-known telecom company

Simmons and Simmons advises on the alleged misuse of trade secrets (as well as breach of contract and copyright infringement) by the company in bringing in a new supplier to develop and install a new App for a key software system.

The case has a complex international element to it, involving multiple jurisdictions for potential litigation and the crossover between different forums for potential litigation.

The key partners involved are Joel Smith and Raza Pizvi, as well as associate Mattias Ratzen.

• DXC Technology: Trade secrets dispute

The team, led by Priya Nagpal along with supervising associate Alex Kritharidis and associate Edward Imrie (all London), represents DXC Technology in trade secrets litigation.

• Atreides Caseri: Dispute with former employee and rival business

Simmons & Simmons represents Atreides, a data analytics company headquartered in California, which serves the defence, intelligence, public and commercial sectors.

The matter relates to a dispute with a former employee and rival business.

Acting for Atreides in the matter is a team of partners Priya Nagpal and Marisa Broughton, and supervising associates James Marsden and Azadeh Vahdat (all London).

Clients:

Boston Scientific, DXC Technology, Flextech, Roxtec