Nokia litigation head Richard Vary is joining Bird & Bird as a partner in the firm's London office.

Vary, who has spent 10 years at Nokia, is experienced in managing multi-jurisdictional patent litigation. Alongside this, he also deals with competition and commercial law, tax disputes, as well as managing brand protection, trademarks, designs and copyright issues.

During his time at Nokia, he handled cross-border disputes with KPN, IPCom, Apple, HTC, Blackberry and Viewsonic. Vary was also involved in the arbitration proceedings on Standards Essential Patent valuations with Samsung.

Vary also was involved in Microsoft's $7.2bn (£5.5bn) bid for Nokia, which was handled mainly in-house.

A Nokia spokesperson said: "We're grateful to Richard for his contribution to the work of the legal and compliance team at Nokia and we wish him well in his new role at Bird & Bird, one of our global legal services providers. His legacy at Nokia is a world-class litigation team, which continues its work, and the search for his successor is well advanced."

Bird & Bird head of tech and comms Graeme Maguire added: "Richard has been very well known to a large number of us for many years and is a significant addition to our team. His joining is another example of our commitment to enhance further and develop our market-leading practice and reputation, at a time when intangible rights and technological change are among the most important issues facing many businesses."

Regular advisers to Nokia include Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Shearman & Sterling, which advised on the €20bn merger of Nokia and Siemens in 2006.