Lara is a Partner in the patents team, and is based in the London office of Marks & Clerk. A large part of Lara’s practice relates to protecting inventions in the Artificial Intelligence field, and she has particular experience with applications in areas such as natural language processing, medical imaging and home automation. Lara has also completed the Stanford University certificate in Machine Learning on Coursera. She advises clients across the world on patenting AI innovations and has given numerous presentations in Japan on the EPO approach to AI. Alongside her work in the AI space, Lara also works across a range of technologies in the software and electronics sectors, including in particular cryptography, Agritech, video coding (including standards essentiality evaluations), medical devices, wireless networking, optical devices and semiconductor devices.

Lara has successfully represented clients at oral proceedings at the EPO, and has experience of EPO opposition and appeal proceedings. Lara acts on behalf of clients of all sizes, from individual inventors, through to SMEs and large multinationals. She has experience prosecuting applications in multiple jurisdictions including Europe, the US, China and Japan.

Lara joined Marks & Clerk in 2012. She qualified as a UK Chartered Patent Attorney in 2016, having been awarded the Moss Prize for the highest aggregate mark in the Basic UK Patent Law and Basic Overseas Patent Law papers. She also qualified as a European Patent Attorney in 2016, having achieved the highest mark in Europe for the English language Opposition paper. Lara has a first class degree in physics from Durham University, and went on to obtain a PhD in solid state physics from the University of Cambridge before joining Marks & Clerk.

Lara was recognised as a rising star by Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars in 2019 and 2020.