George Hamer obtained his degree in chemistry from the Royal College of Science (Imperial College, London) in 1971 before being called to the Bar in 1974. His practice covers all areas of Intellectual Property law and other cases where a good scientific background is required. Born in Montreal, and having lived and worked in a number of countries, he has an international outlook with some facility for languages

Early in his career, he was Junior Counsel in a number of cases for Catnic, culminating in the seminal patent infringement case, Catnic v Hill & Smith, in the House of Lords (and the resulting inquiry as to damages). Also in his early years, he represented Rolls-Royce Motors in many cases where they were enforcing their trade marks (and other IP rights), and the BPI, enforcing the copyrights of the record industry.

Since then he has had a wealth of experience in all the traditional areas of IP and some areas a little removed from them (e.g. in the Privy Council for the estate and large family of Bob Marley, overturning a decision of the Court of Appeal in Jamaica, which had approved the sale of his copyrights for a mere $10m). More recently he represented Ordnance Survey in a raft of cases in which the copyright in their maps had been infringed, including a case against the AA, ending in settlement with what is believed to be the largest sum in damages in any copyright case (£20m). The 2006 settlement under which Nike paid £300,000 damages to his client, Hackney Borough Council, for using their logo on a range of sportswear was more modest, but just as widely publicised.