Following the recruitment of Mary Serhal at the beginning of the year and the promotion of Marcela Moraru in April, the Paris office of the international law firm Simmons & Simmons has continued its growth by announcing the arrival of a new partner, Abdelaziz Khatab.

Abdelaziz becomes the 32nd partner of the Paris office and will bolster the firm's IP department, particularly its Patent Litigation practice.

An experienced European patent attorney and lawyer, Abdelaziz brings comprehensive and widely recognised expertise on the market. As a lawyer and engineer, he has both legal and technical qualifications, enabling him to represent his clients before the French courts, the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) and the French and European Patent Offices.

Abdelaziz offers a wide range of services to a broad spectrum of businesses, particularly in the Telecommunications, Electronics, Medical Technologies and Automotive sectors. His clients benefit from his expertise in high-stakes patent litigation, particularly in standard-essential patent litigation. He also advises them on their IP strategies (including freedom to operate, audits, valuation, and licence negotiations).

On joining Simmons, Abdelaziz Khatab commented: “The choice of Simmons & Simmons was a very natural one, as we share multiple synergies. I'm delighted to be joining a firm with cutting-edge sectoral expertise in telecoms and to be working alongside a renowned team with an international reach. The firm is a benchmark in Europe for representation before the Unified Patent Court”.

Bas Berghuis, head of Simmons’ global Patents group, added: “The addition of Abdelaziz to our Patents team is a considerable asset to the practice and enables us to meet our ambitions on the European stage, offering a world-class Patents team with patent specialists in the main UPC jurisdictions”.