Dr Janice Denoncourt

Role

Associate Professor Dr Janice Denoncourt's role at NLS is to lead on interdisciplinary research and teaching in the fields of Intellectual Property, Business law, Corporate Governance, Data Protection and Privacy, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Finance, Accounting for Intangibles, Innovation, Emerging technology Law (Artificial Intelligence and FinTech), and related public policy.  She is an experienced PhD and Professional Doctorate supervisor and welcomes applications in these fields.

Jan draws on her professional corporate law experience to inform her interdisciplinary research which involves intangible IP rights, finance and corporate governance law, broadly conceived.  She founded and leads the School's Innovation & IP Research Group which sits within the Centre for Business and Insolvency Law and Sustainable Futures research theme.  She is a prolific scholar, the author of many books and speaker who shares her thinking at top research institutions around the world with an impact on policy and industry.  Her ground-breaking book, Intellectual Property, Finance and Corporate Governance (2018) Routledge Taylor-Francis Group is available in over 100 leading university libraries in dozens of countries and was submitted to the 2021 REF.

Dr Denoncourt is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a member of the Royal Society of the Arts, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Directors and a member of the NLS Centre for Legal Education. Jan has expanded the IP law curricula of NLS, NBS, NTU's School of Art & Design and School of Architecture, Design and Built Environment (ADBE).  She connects IP rights law theory to shape policy, practice and sustainability transitions.

Jan is an experienced Director of Studies and welcomes students interested in pursuing PhD research in the interdisciplinary fields of IP, business law, corporate governance, emerging technologies (eg AI, FinTech), entrepreneurship, ethics, IP finance, geographical indications, IP and corporate history, innovation, sustainability and related policy.  She has supervised award-winning LLM theses on the School's LLM Intellectual Property Law course.  She is Course Leader for the LLM Legal Practice by Research DL and the LLM International Legal Studies by Research DL.

Dr Denoncourt supports strategic operation of NLS through her line management, REF mentoring activities, research and teaching.

As an active researcher, Jan's interdisciplinary research regularly informs public policy and debate, most recently with the UK Endorsement Board as a member of the Academic Advisory Group, the UK Intellectual Property Office and the European Accounting Association. Jan's externally ranked -4* REF monograph Intellectual Property, Finance and Corporate Governance (2018) documents her fundamental and normative IP rights-related research which goes to the heart of our understanding of how intangible IP rights collide with other regulatory fields.  In other work, Jan draws on legal history and comparative law to inform and progress legal innovation and sustainability transitions.  On other occasions carries out thematic analysis and creates case studies to illustrate issues and gaps in law and regulation.

Jan founded and leads the NLS Intellectual Property Research Group which sits within the School's Centre for Business and Insolvency Law (CBIL). She supports Early Career Researchers in establishing and enhancing their individual research profiles and is Deputy Post Graduate Research Tutor.

A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) since 2017, Jan is also involved in work of the Centre for Legal Education (CLE) at NLS.

Since September 2019 Jan has been the course leader for the LLM Legal Practice by Research (DL) and the LLM International Legal Studies by Research (DL).  She is also the Module Leader for:

• LLM Global Intellectual Property Law,  Innovation and Governance
• LLM Sport, Intellectual Property Law and Commerce
• LLM Global Data Protection and Privacy Law
• LLB Intellectual Property Law (Distance Learning)
• LLM International Finance Transactions Law module on the subject of intellectual property finance and secured transactions (as contributor).
• Jan was involved in designing and delivering a series of workshops during 2014-2016 and is lead author of the Nottingham Creative IP Guide.

Career overview

Associate Professor Dr Janice Denoncourt is a Solicitor (England & Wales), Barrister & Solicitor (Western Australia) and a registered Australian Trade Mark Attorney, non-practising.

Early in her law practice career, Jan was selected to clerk for Justice R.D. Nicholson, Supreme Court of Western Australia.  She articled at Herbert Smith Freehills (formerly Freehill Hollingdale and Page) in Perth. She graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), University of Sydney with experience within the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and the WA Ombudsman's Office.  Jan was awarded a full British Council Chevening-Landerer Commercial Law Scholarship which brought her to the UK for post-graduate study.

An early law career highlight was Jan's role as Lieutenant Legal Officer and Counsel Assisting the Royal Australian Navy's first Public Board of Inquiry  to investigate the fire onboard HMAS Westralia and its aftermath, the worst Australian naval disaster in 34 years. Jan was Aide-de-Camp to Major General Michael Jeffery AC,CVO, MC, 28th Governor of Western Australia (24th Governor of Australia).

Jan worked with BHP Biliton Iron Ore in the remote Pilbara region and for several years was sole In-house Counsel for a publicly listed Western Australia-based mining, drill & blast explosive and non-explosive technology firm with international operations in Hong Kong, South Africa and the USA. Jan was Senior Associate and Head of IP with Minter Ellison, Perth, WA.  In the UK she acted as in-house counsel for a large private UK firm with a significant IP portfolio in the South West UK.

External activity

Jan is a member of the Financial Reporting Standards Committee (FRSC) Working Group on Intangibles Chaired by Professor Stefan Zambon, University Ferrara, Italy and Vice-Chair, Professor Jan Marton, University Gothenburg, Sweden. In July 2022 the Working Group contributed a substantial submission in response to the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) Discussion Paper on Intangibles.

Dr Denoncourt recently gave evidence to the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) and the UK Accounting Standard Endorsement Board (UKEB) and has been appointed to the Academic Advisory Group of the latter.

• Board member, London-based think tank, Intellectual Property Awareness Network, see www.ipaware.org
• Fellow, Royal Society of the Arts (UK)
• Member, European Accounting Association (EAA)
• Member of the Australian and New Zealand Legal History Association
• Formerly Co-Chair of the European Intellectual Property Teachers’ Network (EIPTN) based at Bocconi University, Milan, Italy in 2016-2018. She co-hosted the 10th and 11^th editions of the EIPTN’s annual conference held at the University of Lund, Sweden (2016) and the University of Poitiers, France (2018).  See www.eiptn.eu
• Member, UK Intellectual Property Office Research Expert's Advisory Group since 2016.
• Formerly External Examiner Queen Mary University of London, Post Graduate Certificate in IP Law.
• Formerly External Examiner Middlesex University, LLB Programme.
• Member, Society of Legal Scholars (SLS)
• Member, International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP)
• Member, British Association of Canadian Studies (BACS)
• Member, Nottingham Law School Centre for Business and Insolvency Law (CBIL)
• Member, Nottingham Law School Centre for Legal Education (CLE)
• Solicitor, England and Wales (via QLTT, non-practising)
• Barrister and Solicitor, Western Australia (non-practising)
• Herbert Smith Freehills Alumna
• Minter Ellison Alumna

Sponsors and collaborators

Jan has been sponsored by the:

UK Intellectual Property Office

European Patent Office

Norwegian Industrial Patent Office

Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA)

Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA)

European IP Teachers Network (EIPTN)

IP Awareness Network (IPAN)

Global University Venturing

Global Women's Inventors and Innovators Network (GlobalWIIN)

Kyusu University

University of Trento

University of Buckingham

Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM),

Fondation Aix-Marseille Université Chair d’Innovation et Brevets

International Society for the History of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP)

NTU and NLS Strategic Research Fund.