Although only 14 months old, Perth-based Wrays Lawyers has already established itself as a leading intellectual property firm, with further expansion on the cards.

Affiliated with Wrays Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys (WPTMA), the largest firm of patent and trade marks attorneys in Western Australia, and under the umbrella of the Wrays Group, Wrays Lawyers has built itself up from just two fee-earners when it opened in May 2009 to 10 fee earners now.

Managing director of Wrays Lawyers and partner of the Wrays Group, David Stewart, was previously running the second largest trade marks practice in Perth for Freehills. He says it made sense to join forces.

"We were fierce competitors and had been for quite a few years," Stewart explains. "One day we got talking [with Wrays] and agreed that instead of actually fighting each other we should actually all come together....Wrays had the largest [trade marks practice] so it made some sense to pull together."

While Wrays has always been a firm orientated in Western Australia, having just celebrated 90 years in the business, Stewart says most of the firm's clients are large multinationals.

"Our clients are actually mostly overseas clients. Large multinationals use people here [in Perth] because of their particular expertise and [they] don't really care where they sit within Australia," Stewart says.

Focusing only on intellectual property law, Wrays Lawyers provides advice on a range of matters including trademarks and copyright issues, patent litigation, design orientated work as well as confidentiality and IP agreements for joint ventures between mining companies. "[We also do] a lot of more esoteric stuff like parallel importation, trade practices compliance...domain name stuff," Stewart says, who appeared as counsel in the "Ugg Boot" decision which made headlines in 2006.

According to Stewart, the global financial crisis did not affect Wrays Lawyers "in the slightest" and the firm has remained busy, still actively recruiting. With a team of 10, including two colleagues from Freehills, the team at Wrays Lawyers is set to grow even further in 2010. "We're currently on a big expansion plan," Stewart says. "I'm currently interviewing a whole bunch of people with probably, realistically, at least two but possibly four positions that we're trying to fill, basically to keep on top of the volume of work that we've got."

Stewart says the team at Wrays Lawyers is appreciative of how well the firm has performed since they began last year and he is happy to be working in an area of law that he enjoys so much.

"If I wasn't doing IP, I wouldn't be doing law anymore. I would have given up a long time ago," he says. "What I'm fortunate enough to do is be able to work with really creative people. Most of my client base are graphic designers, grant consultants or marketing managers...I've really enjoyed working with marketing people and sitting down and going through their material and being involved in the more strategic aspect of what they do," he says.

"I work with a lot of artists [and] musicians, particularly on copyright issues, and to be able to help people to make some money out of their hard work - their particular creative efforts - is gratifying. It's good to do."

- Briana Everett

>> Read more about the lawyers leading their firms through innovation and ideas in our Firm Profiles series