Innovative tech and household appliance group Dyson’s general counsel and company secretary Martin Bowen has been named as one of the UK’s top 100 lawyers.
Martin Bowen, pictured, who joined the Malmesbury-based international in 1998 – five years after inventor Sir James Dyson founded the business – appears on the Hot 100 list compiled by industry title The Lawyer, which gathers together the best lawyers in the business. 
The Lawyer says last year Martin Bowen overhauled Dyson’s in-house team structure to put legal at the forefront of the company’s development and future growth.
“In-house lawyers are now part of the research and development teams, working hand-in-hand with Dyson’s engineers to ward off any legal challenges that may be coming down the line. It was no mean feat: Bowen had to convince his business partners of the benefits legal could bring in helping push Dyson forward on the global stage,” says The Lawyer’s profile on Mr Bowen.
“The company is synonymous with innovation and Bowen’s team is right at the heart of that thanks to his changes. With an eye on 20% year-on-year growth in the Asia Pacific, Bowen is working hard to see off copycat threats coming from China.”
Mr Bowen trained with international law firm Osborne Clarke’s Bristol office, where he qualified in 1993. He moved to rival firm Eversheds in 1996 before joining Dyson as counsel two years later.
Today he manages teams of legal advisers across the world including five solicitors based at its Malmesbury headquarters advising head office functions and its seven European businesses, three attorneys and two paralegal staff in the US and two in Singapore supporting the manufacturing arm of the group and the Asia-Pacific businesses.
He is also responsible for the Intellectual Property team, including five patent agents. Dyson's 2014 earnings rose 13% to £367m on revenues up 10% at £1.3bn on a big increase in sales in Asia of its bladeless fans, air heaters and purifiers. Asia now accounts for about a third of revenues. Some 90% of Dyson products are sold outside the UK.
Rising sales of new technologies including bladeless fans, air heaters and purifiers helped push revenues up 10%in 2014 to n.
He is one of 30 in-house lawyers on The Lawyer’s Hot 100 list which also includes those from British American Tobacco, BT and News UK as well as barristers and specialists in litigation, finance, energy, real estate, life sciences, and regulation.
