5. Introduction from the Honorary Secretary

5. Introduction from the Honorary Secretary

Hi everyone! For those of you that are reading this handbook when starting out as a trainee – welcome to the Informals. Otherwise, I hope this handbook is still of use to you; it really is packed full of great information and resources.

My name is Matty – the Honorary Secretary of the Informals Committee for 2026.

If you’re now asking yourself, ‘who are the Informals?’, you might want to refer back to section 4, which explains who we are and what we do in more detail. But, briefly, the Informals is an association for the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (‘CIPA’) members that are not yet fully qualified – i.e., trainee patent attorneys. The Informals Committee is a group of volunteer trainees that handles what the Informals are up to. That includes everything from regional socials, to organising webinars, to providing wellbeing support (and much, much more).

As the Honorary Secretary, my role is to oversee what the Committee is doing. In practice, that means delegating responsibilities to other members of our wonderful team… Without them, a lot of what the Informals do would not be possible.

My other main role is to act as a representative for the Committee and the wider trainee community, liaising with groups like CIPA, IPReg and the Patent Examination Board (‘PEB’) to ensure that our voices are heard. I sit on a number of CIPA Committees, including Council and the Education Committee.

Prior to being Honorary Secretary, I was the Regional Social Secretary for the West Midlands; a role that I really enjoyed. I jump at any chance to chat with other trainees and attorneys whenever I can, whether that be at one of our socials, events like the Induction Day and the Future Attorneys Conference, or at the ever-delightful Milton Keynes (if you know, you know). Now, as Honorary Secretary, that is still probably my favourite part of the role – speaking to other people about what we do at the Informals and about patents/IP more generally.

So, please do let me know if you have anything you want to share – whether that’s feedback, suggestions for what we could improve or expand, or questions about getting involved. Whatever it is, I am always here to help at [email protected].

Anyway, that is probably enough from me. Best of luck to those of you that are just starting out on your new careers. Hopefully I will see many of you in the near future one way or another.

All the best,

Matty Philpotts, Honorary Secretary of the Informals