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Mike Northern - Principal Solicitor
Mike Northern, the Principal Solicitor of Mike Northern Legal is an experienced practitioner in the fields of Intellectual Property Protection, including advice and litigation, Regulatory Complaints (including Health & Safety Executive, Trading Standards, ASA), Consumer Law and Commercial Law and Commercial Advice in general.
Mike has for some eight years advised UKIE, the trade body of the UK video games industry on matters of policy and lobbying the UK Government on legal developments of relevance to the industry.
An experienced criminal litigator, he is equally at home defending and prosecuting in the criminal courts.
Mike has worked in both criminal and civil courts and has been involved in proceedings in the Divisional Court, Court of Appeal and in the House of Lords.
Until April 2003, Mike was the Director of the anti-piracy team at Richards Butler (now Reed Smith), a large and well regarded international City law firm. Over a five year period he acted for anti-piracy organisations representing the film (FACT), computer games (ELSPA) and music (BPI) industries. He has also represented fashion designers and merchandisers against those seeking to steal their IP rights. Mike also advised on advertising compliance and related trading law.
For the nine years prior to this Mike worked at Titmuss Sainer Dechert (now Dechert) another well-respected City law firm on aspects of law as detailed above.
Mike also has many years experience working as a Trading Standards Officer in West London, Hampshire and finally in Kent, where he was a Principal TSO.
Mike was admitted as a Solicitor in 1996 and in 2003 set up Mike Northern Legal, a solicitors' practice servicing clients with City expertise at provincial costs. -
Abi Wills - Consultant
University College London with Honours in Law in 1996.
Legal Practice Course at College of Law 1997.
Abi undertook her training contract with an East London High Street practice gaining experience in personal injury, family and criminal law.
She was admitted as a solicitor in 1999 and joined Edward Fail Neale and Co on qualification and specialised in serious and complex crime.
Abi is an experienced advocate in all summary proceedings and is police station accredited.
She has conducted cases in both the Divisional Court and Court of Appeal.
Abi was involved in a Judicial Review of the legality and reliability of the intoximeter and most recently won an appeal relating to culpability in law for manslaughter where the deceased allegedly committed suicide as a result of the acts of the defendant.
Abi moved to Turbervilles in 2002 where she gained experience in licensing and also conducted private prosecutions on behalf of the RSPCA.
Abi returned to Edward Fail Neale & Co in 2003 where she managed for the practice all matters relating to the contract with the LSC as well as significant criminal cases including the 2004 gold bullion robbery at Swissport.
Most recently Abi won a costs appeal before the Supreme Court Costs Office relating to the hourly rate charged by FACT Investigators. The ruling enables FACT to recover an hourly rate that represents a reasonable apportionment of its total overheads.
Abi is regularly instructed by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) in a series of private criminal prosecutions for copyright and trade mark infringements by film pirates. She is also involved in similar prosecutions conducted by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) against music pirates.
Abi has worked for Mike Northern Legal as a Consultant Solicitor since October 2005.
