Monday Interview: Louise Handley, Partner and founder at 3volution

A partner and founder of a Leeds-based commercial law firm has hailed the “resilience” of the Leeds tech sector in the face of adversity.

Louise Handley, of 3volution, said this sector continues to expand, but can still do more to communicate and promote its own success.

“We all need to be talking to each other – we’re not as good as places like Manchester at saying how well we’re doing, which is a shame,” she said. “The sector is quite spread out and maybe it doesn’t pull together as well as it should, though I think that is improving.”

She said 3volution had not suffered any Brexit-related problems, adding that it has apparently mostly been business as usual for the entrepreneurial companies it deals with.

“Some of them may have been holding back at various points – such as during the elections – but that’s not the case anymore,” she said.

“Most of my clients are quite agile, and once they know what is going to happen they just crack on with things. They are fairly resilient – that seems to be the nature of my clients.

“So for us, generally speaking, it has been a good, busy year.”

Handley said she enjoys getting fully engaged and involved with her clients’ businesses, about 80% of which are based in the Yorkshire area.

She completed a degree in animal nutrition and physiology at Leeds University then trained and qualified into the IP department at Clyde & Co in London.

In 1998 she joined the Technology, Media and IP department at Addleshaw Goddard, where she worked for seven years. She went onto join another Leeds commercial practice as a partner before founding 3volution in 2011 with Tim Stone and Jonathan Priestley.

Her work includes IP exploitation and protection for a range of clients in various sectors including a number of universities, government bodies, biotech and pharmaceutical companies and various digital, media and games companies and dealing with all types of IT agreements.

She said 3volution curently employs 22 people and is likely to take on more staff as it grows organically. “We look to bring in juniors and build them up so they really become a part of our firm,” she said.

“We’ve been here for eight and a half years now, but I think people don’t always consider joining us. We do offer something a little different for people who may have worked for one of the bigger firms and want to try something else.

“We work hard, but we’re not all about the figures. We’re very good at offering part time work – two of our female partners are part time, and they’ve been with us for years.”

Handley said future developments of interest to her business include the possibility of the IP court coming to Leeds, as well as the arrival of Channel 4.