Reputation management

Susan Aslan

Susan Aslan is a partner and founding member of ACK Media Law LLP, jointly heading the media litigation department. She was a partner at D J Freeman, Olswang and Howard Kennedy before founding ACK Media Law LLP, a specialist media law firm. She advises on all areas of media litigation, including advising broadcasters, TV and film production companies, newspapers and publishers. Her areas of expertise include defamation, infringement of copyright, privacy, data protection and format rights. She regularly speaks and gives interviews on media law matters. Although Susan is a litigation expert, she spends a great deal of time advising on resolving disputes and avoiding litigation in a commercial and cost effective way.

Gideon Benaim

Partner

Louis Charalambous

Partner and Head of Media Litigation. Recent major libel and privacy actions include Danny Simpson v MGN, PJS v Newsgroup Newspapers Limited and Andrew Mitchell MP v News Group Newspapers (’Plebgate’). He is a recognised specialist in crime related media work including libel, privacy, contempt and production orders. He also acts in political party and trade union election disputes. Other high profile clients include The Sun/Sun on Sunday, The Times/Sunday Times, Mirror/Sunday Mirror, Vice Media, Channel 4, BBC and other broadcasters. He also acts for online channels, production companies and high profile individuals.

David Engel

Commercial Disputes partner. Leads the Reputation & Information Protection team, specialising in reputation crisis management, defamation, privacy, confidentiality, data protection disputes, and in the protection of rights and reputation online.  Also advises on commercial litigation, particularly in hedge fund sector.

Caroline Kean

Caroline is a partner and head of the litigation group. She also leads the publishing team. Her expertise includes commercial litigation, with particular emphasis on defamation, privacy, confidence, copyright, trademarks, passing off and contractual disputes. Caroline is highly-regarded in the London media litigation market, with immense experience in resolving complex media disputes.

Keith Mathieson

Partner

Jo Sanders

Partner and head of UK media, reputation and privacy team. Jo joined Withersworldwide in 2019 to lead the media and reputation team in London. She has 15 years’ experience of looking after the reputation and privacy of some of the world’s most well-known individuals and businesses. Described as ‘calm and insightful’, Jo advises clients whenever sensitive information or reputation is at risk. She assists clients who become the subject of press attention and who want to ensure that stories are accurate and fairly put together. This can be achieved via legal engagement with the media before publication, commonly in tandem with communications advisers. Jo helps clients who face challenges over the use of information in high profile contexts, such as Select Committee or public inquiries, media reporting on high-profile litigation or misuse of information online or in breach of confidence. The other central part of her work is contentious data protection advice, acting for data controllers or individuals in respect of complex subject access rights, data breach and complaints. For individuals she also advises on privacy, blackmail threats or harassment. Recently she has helped clients who wished to avoid publicity of details of their home and removal of untrue and malicious content online.

Nigel Tait

Nigel is the Managing Partner at Carter-Ruck.  He is also the head of the  Media Department.  His main area of practice is media law, acting mainly for claimants. Cases of interest include Beta Construction -v- Channel 4 (award of £568,000 - highest ever libel award paid to a company); Telnikoff -v- Matusevitch (first libel case to go to the House of Lords for over a decade - award of £240,000); acted for successful party (PJS) in PJS -v- News Group Newspapers (first case in which Supreme Court has given Judgement on an interim application restraining a breach of privacy); Jack Slipper -v- BBC (£50,000 damages - leading case on liability for republication); X -v- Y (settlement of £200,000 plus costs); Jonathan Hunt (aged 6) -v- The Sun (settlement of £35,000 plus costs to mother and son - youngest ever libel plaintiff); Farargay -v- Al Hayat (award of £170,000 plus costs); Scholar -v- Mail (award of £100,000 plus costs); Gorman -v- Mudd (award of £150,000 plus costs); Morelli -v- Sunday Times (award of £45,000 plus costs - first conditional fee libel action to go to trial); Kirby Harris -v- Baxter (leading case on trial by jury); Victor Kiam -v- Sunday Times (£45,000 plus costs - upheld by the Court of Appeal); Shah -v- Standard Chartered Bank (leading case on reasonable grounds to suspect); Kiam -v- The Mirror (award of £105,000 plus costs - upheld by the Court of Appeal); Walker -v- Newcastle Chronicle (settlement of £100,000 plus costs); Rahamim -v- Channel 4 and Ors (Settlement of £175,000 plus costs and broadcast apology on Channel 4 news); X -v- Sunday Sport (injunction to restrain publication obtained within two hours of receiving instructions); Y -v- Sunday Sport and Anor (injunction in the new tort of privacy resulting in the pulping of 40,000 copies of a magazine); Rahamim -v- Dennis Publishing (settlement of £30,000 plus costs during first “offer of amends” trial). Acted for Sir Elton John against the Sunday Times, Mirror and Mail (who apologised to Sir Elton and paid £100,000 in damages plus costs). Acted for City banker Piotr Tymula in his successful defence of a libel action brought by former colleague Svetlana Lokhova. Nigel has obtained numerous injunctions preventing breaches of privacy and has spoken at the Oxford Union Debating Society on three occasions on the reform of libel and privacy laws.

Mark Thomson

Director and Solicitor Advocate

Adam Tudor

Partner specialising in media and reputation management as well as commercial dispute resolution. Noteworthy cases include: representing Kate and Gerry McCann – securing for them an unprecedented four front-page apologies from national newspapers together with damages of £550,000; representing numerous individuals falsely linked with terrorist plots (obtaining numerous broadcast and printed apologies and damages totalling over £700,000); representing Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) in numerous successful libel complaints. Other clients include various national governments and heads of state, political figures and multinational corporations.

Gerrard Tyrrell

Gerrard is Senior partner and head of media and information group; specialising in IP, defamation, confidence, and media sport and commercial litigation; legal counsel for numerous global household names. He is acknowledged as a leading lawyer in the field of litigation with particular reference to the work that he carries out in the fields of information protection, privacy and defamation.

Alan Watts

Alan is a disputes partner and the firm’s Head of Global Class Actions, Head of Commercial Litigation UK and Co-Head of Partnerships.

Victoria Baron

Victoria joined Bristows’ media disputes team in February 2021. She regularly advises online intermediaries on high profile privacy and data protection cases. Victoria acted on the first “Right to Be Forgotten” claims to be determined at trial in the High Court. She has also acted for mainstream media entities, including representing a leading international broadcaster and online content provider on a breach of confidence claim following its reporting on information contained in a mass data leak. Victoria also advises clients in all sectors on data protection disputes, including in relation to threatened group actions following alleged data breaches.

Mathilde Groppo

Mathilde is a Senior Associate in the Media Litigation group. Her practice encompasses all aspects of Media law. As part of her defamation and reputation management practice, Mathilde advises both claimants and defendants, individuals, charities and corporations, often acting against multiple defendants. She has been the lead associate in a number of recent media cases, and assisted on various successful injunctions. She is highlighted as a Rising Star in the Legal 500. She represents clients both at the pre-publication stage and after publication, obtaining injunctions, corrections and apologies, as well as statements in open court and statements summarising judgments and orders. In her recent cases, she has obtained the publication of various apologies and corrections, and several payments of 5 figure and 6 figure damages for her clients. Mathilde has also successfully obtained interim injunctions which were converted into permanent undertakings to the Court and into a permanent injunction following an application for summary judgment. She has acted against private individuals, social media platforms and a variety of publishers including the Daily Mail and MailOnline, the Mirror, Express Newspapers, the Guardian, the Times and the BBC, as well as foreign newspapers in both English proceedings and multi-jurisdictional matters. She also deals with complaints to IPSO and assists on media law issues arising in arbitration proceedings As part of her privacy practice, Mathilde regularly acts for clients in anonymised proceedings involving misuse of private information, breach of confidence, blackmail and harassment, both in the High Court and in arbitrations. She obtains urgent injunctions for celebrities, leading business figures, politicians and others, restraining breaches of privacy, in litigation and arbitration matters, and secures the removal of sensitive material from the internet. She also advises on confidentiality provisions within settlement agreements, and drafts and advises on non-disclosure agreements. Mathilde’s data protection practice involves work asserting the Right to Be Forgotten, from the initial stages of online removal of search results and links through to court proceedings against search engines, as well as complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office. She also advises on rights and obligations arising from the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, including subject access rights. Mathilde also has experience in contentious and non-contentious intellectual property and information technology cases and general litigation matters. She regularly publishes expert commentary on recent legal developments, including in the national and legal press. Mathilde is a pro bono legal adviser at the Waterloo Legal Advice Service.

Helena Shipman

Senior Associate:  Helena advises on defamation, misuse of private information and data protection claims (pre-publication and post-publication including claims with international aspects), non-party disclosure applications; cases against national newspapers, search engines, social networks and individuals. She has represented clients in the High Court, Court of Appeal and European Court of Justice, on behalf of both claimants and defendants.

Jessica Welch

Jess’s practice focuses on media disputes and reputation protection. Her experience encompasses intellectual property and contractual disputes and working with high profile individuals and corporates on defamation, misuse of private information and data protection claims.

Persephone Bridgman Baker

Persephone is a partner at Carter-Ruck and specialises in media and reputation management work, encompassing defamation, privacy and harassment, together with data protection and intellectual property litigation. She advises on reputation management matters for celebrity, high-profile and ultra and high net worth individuals, including misuse of private information and harassment. Increasingly this work involves social media and online harms. Persephone also works on both pre-publication and post-publication matters against a variety of news publishers in a wide variety of divergent subject areas including entertainment, politics, healthcare, and anti-terrorism. She has experience of “Right to be Forgotten” cases concerning the removal of information online, and the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR and the interplay between these and general reputation management matters. Persephone’s litigation experience has also included breach of confidence and trade secrets disputes, including cases involving aspects of corporate fraud.

Rupert Cowper-Coles

Partner in the media team, specialising in media litigation, most often in the fields of defamation, privacy, data protection and harassment law. Rupert predominantly advises publishers and intermediaries in defending claims and exercising their free speech rights, acting for a spectrum of well-known clients including national newspapers, magazines, book publishers and journalists. He is experienced in litigating complex and developing areas of law, including on foreign jurisdiction issues, intermediary liability and the impact of European law on domestic information rights. Prior to joining RPC in 2016, Rupert predominantly advised prospective claimants.

Matthew Dando

Matthew is an experienced litigation partner, specialising in contentious commercial matters and publication disputes in the media industry. He advises clients predominantly in the media, tech and sports industries. On the commercial front, Matthew advises on questions of contractual interpretation and related issues, boardroom fallouts, warranty, shareholder and joint venture disputes and responses to the misuse of confidential information. In the media and entertainment field, he advises film studios, national and international print media groups and broadcasters on high profile privacy and defamation actions, rights disputes and all other contentious issues arising in the sector. Matthew’s practice encompasses cross-border litigation, arbitration and other less formal dispute resolution mechanisms including advice on dispute avoidance: stress testing potentially difficult scenarios, helping clients gain early leverage in commercial matters and to best protect themselves from the risks of publication in the media space.

Leo Dawkins

Leo is a partner at Lee & Thompson and head of the firm’s Reputation Protection group. He is also a key member of the firm’s Dispute Resolution and Data Privacy groups. He has a varied commercial dispute resolution practice, advising clients in relation to all kinds of disputes, especially those within the media, technology and creative industries. He is particularly well regarded for his expertise in defamation and privacy disputes. To compliment this work, Leo has a significant pre-publication legal clearance and compliance practice, advising with respect to a wide variety of content, including film and TV dramas, documentaries, comedy, books and any other type of printed or audio-visual content. Leo is also an experienced data protection compliance lawyer, helping clients navigate, understand and comply with complex data protection and e-privacy laws. He holds the Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/EU) certification with the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Recent work highlights reflect the breadth of Leo’s practice. They include representing His Highness Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco in the Court of Appeal in a libel and Data Protection Act claim against the online publisher Elaph; defending Channel 5 in the Court of Appeal in respect of their programme Can’t Pay? We’ll Take it Away!; representing producers for the feature documentary Billion Dollar Game in their defence of High Court proceedings brought by the owners of the video game franchise Grand Theft Auto; providing various high-net-worth individuals with advice regarding their search engine presence/the ‘right to be forgotten’; representing dozens of phone hacking victims in claims against Mirror Group and News Group Newspapers, netting over £3 million in damages for his clients; and providing libel and clearance advice on various film and television productions. Leo completed undergraduate and master’s degrees in Music at King’s College London before converting to law and training at media law firm, Carter-Ruck. Leo maintains a keen interest in music.

James Heath

Partner & Director

Alex Keenlyside

Alex is an experienced litigator specialising in contentious media and data protection matters. He primarily acts for media and technology companies in relation to content, with a particular emphasis on defamation, privacy and data protection disputes. Alex joined Bristows as a partner in December 2019. He is an experienced litigator specialising in contentious media and data protection matters. He primarily acts for media and technology companies in relation to content, with a particular emphasis on defamation, privacy and data protection disputes. Alex has advised various media publishers and internet service providers in relation to claims brought in libel, privacy, data protection and breach of confidence, including: Advising leading global internet companies on various cutting edge defamation, privacy and data protection matters, including the first “Right to Be Forgotten” claims to be determined at trial in the High Court. Acting for a number of mainstream media entities, including representing a leading international broadcaster and online content provider on a breach of confidence claim following its reporting on information contained in a mass data leak.

Tom Rudkin

Tom is an Partner in Farrer & Co's Reputation Management practice, and is also a member of the firm's Sports Group. Tom provides reputation management, contentious media and IP advice to a full range of the firm's clients, including individuals, corporates and institutions. He has experience advising both claimants and defendants on defamation, privacy, contentious data protection, cyber security, harassment, and copyright and trademark law. He works alongside communications advisers, investigative firms, and IT and cyber security specialists to help devise strategies on, and responses to, sensitive issues where the reputational risk is significant. Tom frequently advises sports organisations and individuals on contentious, regulatory and commercial matters. His clients include international and national sports governing bodies, as well as a number of professional sportsmen and women and other sports organisations. Tom's experience includes advising Farrer & Co's sports clients on various forms of dispute resolution (comprising litigation, arbitration at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and mediation), internal investigations, disciplinary and selection issues, and the drafting of key policies (such as those relating to anti-doping and the selection of athletes for major events). Tom has spent time in-house on two separate secondments at the Lawn Tennis Association.

Jeffrey Smele

Senior Associate

Rebecca Toman

Rebecca is a partner at Carter-Ruck.  She acts for UK and non UK HNW and UHNWIs, politicians, entrepreneurs, celebrities and high profile business people providing both contentious and non-contentious advisory services concerning business and personal assets. She protects their welfare and livelihoods through the provision of discreet legal guidance on a myriad of complex and sensitive reputation protection, dispute resolution, data and cyber security issues. She is also very experienced in dealing with complex multi-jurisdictional matters. Rebecca is highly recommended within the industry having obtained significant damages, secured numerous injunctions, takedowns, apologies, corrections and securing the removal of digital content. Rebecca works with her clients to help devise personal, private office and commercial strategies and security policies to protect their businesses and reputation from attack. This includes working with her clients’ existing public relations and in house communication teams and effective external consultants and organisations when necessary. Rebecca’s practice encompasses:​ defamation and privacy –pre and post publication and broadcast matters including the obtaining of injunctions all aspects of media law reputation protection, risk & crisis management digital and data privacy - including internet takedown work dispute resolution non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) asset protection employment advice including confidentiality provisions within settlement agreements.

Alex Wilson

Alex Wilson is a highly experienced media lawyer and litigator, dealing with a broad spectrum of media and communications claims. Alex is an expert in defamation, privacy, data and similar actions.  He has a vast range of experience, acting for a wide variety of media organisations including newspapers, publishers, broadcasters, online media companies and media insurers. Alex has represented clients in cases before the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.  He has experience taking cases to trial as well as disposing of them at an earlier stage, by way of interim applications or by negotiating favourable settlements.  He also provides pre-publication advice and is regularly instructed to respond to pre-publication legal threats (including injunctions). He is recognised as a "true star", "very impressive" and "really good with clients" by the legal directories. He spent a year on secondment at a national newspaper group in 2016/17 and is the Secretary to the Media Lawyers Association.

Tamsin Allen

Partner and Head of Media and Information Law. Tamsin manages a wide-ranging media practice with an emphasis on defamation and privacy, whistleblowing, information and data protection, copyright and human rights. She works closely with crime, employment, family, public law and actions against the police to provide a seamless reputation and crisis management service. Tamsin has acted for Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, since Autumn 2017, as well as Shahmir Sanni who exposed criminal offences inside the designated campaign to leave the EU (Vote Leave), and Carole Cadwalladr in a libel claim brought against her by Leave EU founder, Arron Banks. Tamsin set up the Claimant Group in the hacking litigation against News Group Newspapers and has represented very large numbers of high profile people in phone-hacking claims. She is experienced in public inquiries and represented Core Participant Victims in the Leveson Inquiry. She now represents a number of Core Participants in the Undercover Policing Inquiry and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. She also provides advice to publishers and NGO’s and charities on publication risks, GDPR and in litigation; including Mirror Group, the National Union of Journalists, Animal Aid, LUSH, Amnesty International, The New Statesman, Greenpeace, Index on Censorship and many others.

Hanna Basha

Hanna is a recognised leader in the field of defamation, privacy and breach of confidence, having acted in a number of landmark cases in the High Court. As well as litigation, Hanna has a wealth of experience in media and crisis management and advises clients on strategies for preventing and dealing with significant reputational attacks. She is able to put a responsive strategy in place quickly and effectively when clients are facing unwanted media attention. She skilfully manages media storms. Hanna also acts for her clients in more general litigation, regulatory matters, employment disputes and inquests where maintaining reputation or privacy is key. She has been involved in a number of high profile inquests, disciplinary hearings, employment claims and sports disputes, representing clients in the High Court, before coroners and before governing and regulatory bodies.

Mike Brookes

Mike is a partner in the Dispute Resolution department and head of the firm's Reputation Protection Group. He joined Lee & Thompson in 1998 and has played a key role in creating the firm's reputation for quality dispute resolution, handling the full range of copyright and contractual disputes for clients within the industries of music, film, television and sport, and ranging from artists and actors to record labels and production companies. Much of his work involves protecting the reputation of some of the firm’s highest profile clients. Various battles with the press have been fought and won for well-known names, such as One Direction and its members, Jude Law, Eddie Redmayne, Frankie Boyle, Paul Hollywood, Christopher Eccleston and Charlotte Church. He has also acted for a number of prominent figures in industry and politics, even royalty. In 2017, Mike successfully represented His Highness Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco in the Court of Appeal in a libel and Data Protection Act claim against the online publisher Elaph.  The case has been the subject of much academic discussion in the ongoing debate as to whether claims under the DPA for the “tort of inaccuracy” now provide Claimants with an alternative, often easier, route to vindication than the traditional libel route. In 2016 Mike obtained the much talked about privacy injunction against the Mail on Sunday preventing it from publishing details of a police investigation which the Court found attracted a “reasonable expectation of privacy” (ERY v Associated Newspapers). 2016 also saw Mike and his team acting for dozens of claimants and recovering substantial damages for them in the high profile hacking litigation against the Daily Mirror. In 2014 Mike secured a rare anti-harassment injunction against the paparazzi for Harry Styles, for which he was acknowledged as Lawyer of the Week by The Times newspaper. In 2012 Mike ran what is likely to have been the last ever trial by jury in a defamation action, successfully suing the Mirror on behalf of longstanding client Frankie Boyle who obtained damages of over £50,000 after the paper wrongly labelled him a racist. Also fully immersed in the film and television world, Mike has a significant copyright and defamation clearance practice acting for producer clients on major feature films and television productions, including the Oasis documentary “Supersonic“, “The Theory of Everything” and “The Darkest Hour” for Working Title; and “Broadchurch” for Kudos.

Sue Charles

Sue Charles is a Partner and founding member of ACK Media Law LLP. She was a partner at DJ Freeman, Olswang and Howard Kennedy prior to founding ACK Media Law LLP. She advises on all aspects of media law on matters ranging from defamation, privacy and compliance issues for clients which include film and TV companies, print and on-line publishers. A large proportion of her work is pre-publication and has advised clients on how to avoid taking legal risks whilst achieving their creative goals. Sue also provides content clearance advice acting for the producers of a number of high profile films. In addition to her pre-publication work, Sue also advises on all aspects of media litigation. She acts for clients such as Reed Business Information Limited (publishers of Estates Gazette and New Scientist), Fifty Shades Limited and See Saw TV. Sue specialises in brand and reputation management advising on the most effective way to manage brands, including dealing with a wide range of threats ranging from trademark and copyright disputes to licensing arrangements.

Jeremy Clarke-Williams

Jeremy is head of the reputation management team specialising in defamation, privacy, data protection, confidentiality and harassment.Acted for PC Toby Rowland in his successful libel action against Andrew Mitchell MP (the ‘Plebgate’ case); for Peter Cruddas, CEO of CMC Markets and former Treasurer of the Conservative Party in his successful libel action against the Sunday Times and two of its journalists; for Carmarthenshire County Council in its successful defence of a libel action brought by Jacqueline Thompson and in the successful counterclaim for libel damages by its Chief Executive, Mark James; and for Robert Murat in successful libel claims against the Sun on Sunday, Daily Mail, Express and Daily Star. Has advised the Police Federation, the NASUWT and the League Managers’ Association and their members on defamation and privacy matters for many years. Publications of note: ‘A Practical Guide to Libel and Slander’ (with Lorna Skinner) (2003 – Butterworths/Lexis Nexis); defamation contributor to ‘Civil Court Service’ (published annually by Lexis Nexis)

Dominic Crossley

Dominic specialises in the law of privacy, breach of confidence, defamation and harassment, but the nature of his clients and instructions has given rise to a very wide range of experience and legal expertise. For over two decades he has acted in leading cases and is well known for acting for high profile individuals including actors, preeminent businesspeople, prominent politicians, sportspersons and musicians. He is often instructed at times of crisis, and in relation to sensitive, complex issues for corporate entities as well as individuals. Inevitably, the majority of Dominic’s work is highly confidential, however, he has been involved in matters in the public domain including a number of cases in the High Court, and the highest appellate courts (including the European Court of Human Rights) that have helped develop the law of privacy and libel. Dominic has acted in Public Inquiries, including the Leveson Inquiry (he acted for all 53 “Core Participant Victims”), in the Family Division of the High Court and the Court of Appeal acting for Princess Haya in her proceedings and ground-breaking claims concerning the misuse of spyware and the welfare of her children against Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum. He acted for Steve Coogan in his phone-hacking claim and for Max Mosley in his 2008 case against the News of the World.

Charlotte Harris

Partner

Ashley Hurst

Please see full biography at osborneclarke.com/lawyers/ashley-hurst/

Christopher Hutchings

Chris is a Partner and the Head of Hamlins’ Media and Reputation Management group. Chris' main areas of practice are defamation, privacy and confidentiality. He is also a recognised expert on social media and online content, and provides pre-publication advice to publishers on a range of media-related legal issues. Recent case highlights include successfully acting for the claimant in Sloutsker v Romanova, obtaining libel damages of £110,000, being one of the highest awards of recent years. He also acted for one of the representative claimants in the first phone-hacking civil trial against Mirror Group Newspapers in 2015. Chris’ team are now Lead Solicitors in the current round of phonehacking claims against News Group Newspapers. Clients include Eddie Jordan, Jim Moir (Vic Reeves) and various corporate clients.

Tom Iverson

Tom specialises in dispute resolution in the media and entertainment industries. His practice is split between two main areas: entertainment-related disputes; and reputation protection and media law. Tom also frequently applies his skills to general commercial litigation. On the entertainment side, Tom has spent over 11 years advising on copyright, performers’ rights, false endorsement, passing off, royalty, management, shareholder and other contractual and tortious claims for both claimants and defendants. His experience covers music, film, television, theatre, computer games, publishing, art, design and sport. Tom has advised many world-famous entertainers and rights-holders, and acted in some of the most significant and high-profile cases of the last two decades. Tom’s media-related practice focuses on reputation protection for high-profile individuals and companies. His experience includes acting for claimants and defendants in defamation proceedings, obtaining privacy injunctions and injunctions for breach of confidence, advising on harassment issues, and defending Advertising Standards Authority complaints.

John Kelly

John Kelly is recognised as a leading litigator who specialises in the area of reputation protection, privacy and defamation.Having been involved in many of the most high profile cases and developments in this area, John is recognised as a leading practitioner by Chambers UK, Chambers HNW, The Legal 500 and The Spear’s 500. John works with clients to protect their rights and reputations. Whilst much of John’s work is confidential he represents a number of high-profile individuals, well-known brands, and FTSE 100 companies. Personal clients include High Net Worth individuals, successful entrepreneurs, as well as leading individuals in the entertainment industry, music and sport. John has represented a host of well-known clients including Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Steve Coogan, Russell Brand and Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne. John has developed Personal Protection Principles which are used to protect clients reputations, their family and their security. Corporate clients include leading consumer brands, as well as companies in the financial services and charity sector. Work for corporate clients includes corporate brand protection, advising on the media law aspects of complex litigation, and the protection of private and confidential information in such cases. In addition to this John has extensive experience of dealing with consumer affairs television programmes. John is well-known in the area of sports law and acts for premiership and international football clubs, players, owners, managers, agents as well as governing bodies. John is a regular speaker on Reputation Protection and Personal Protection rights both in the UK and internationally including in the US and Australia.

James Libson

James is the Managing Partner of Mishcon de Reya. He is a litigator who acts mainly for individuals and families in global commercial disputes, and employment and reputation matters. He has been involved in a number of the highest profile cases of the last 20 years, including acting for Deborah Lipstadt in her defence of the claim brought against her by the holocaust denier, David Irving (which case was made into a film, Denial); for Gina Miller in both her recent Supreme Court challenges relating to Article 50 and, in 2019, prorogation; for the Jewish Labour Movement in its referral of the Labour Party to the EHRC; and for several other politicians of all hues over the last 15 years or so. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Law in 2018. James was appointed Managing Partner in 2020, with responsibility for the overall operational management of the law firm. James has sat as a trustee and chaired several charities, particularly in the refugee space and currently chairs Prism, the Gift Fund, a charity that seeks to increase the flow of funds to the philanthropic sector.  

Razi Mireskandari

Partner

Julian Pike

Julian heads Farrer & Co's reputation management practice. He has more than 20 years' experience of advising high profile individuals, corporations and institutions who find themselves the subject of attention, whether from mainstream media, online attacks or campaigning/ obsessed individuals. Often Julian will work with public relations advisers, in-house and external, to achieve the best outcomes. This recognises that the law has its limitations, but also that there is a need to take account of the client's long term business and strategic interests, as well as dealing with immediate issue. Having also represented major UK media organisations throughout his career, Julian knows the "art of the possible" and how best this is achieved.

Emma Woollcott

Emma is a Partner in Mishcon Private and Head of the Reputation Protection and Crisis Management group. She advises individuals, companies and charities on defamation, breach of confidence, invasion of privacy, harassment and data protection concerns. She is particularly adept in digital technology and online publications, often advising in times of crisis and in the context of wider disputes. Emma provides claimants and defendants with pre- and post-publication advice, including obtaining, defending and discharging injunctions. Her clients span a wide range of geographies and industries, including media and entertainment, technology, financial services, politics, publishing, art, property, sport, fashion, education and the charity sector. She regularly trains journalists and PR and other professional advisors on publication concerns. Emma takes a holistic approach to Reputation Protection, encouraging clients to prepare in advance for potential challenges, and effectively mitigating any damage caused by negative publicity. She has experience of commercial litigation in a range of forums, often acting for international clients in complex disputes. Emma also has experience working with charities, providing strategic focus to their campaigns and their dealings with government. Recognised as outstanding in her field by Spears Wealth Management's Index for Reputation Protection lawyers and shortlisted as Spears Reputation lawyer of the year, Emma is described as a trusted advisor in Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500. She was included in Management Today's 35 Women Under 35; listed in the 100 LGBT+ Executives as part of the OUTstanding LGBT+ Role Models 2018, ranked in the Telegraph's LGBT Top 50 Executives in 2015 & 2016, and celebrated in the Pride Power List 2016, 2017 and 2018. Emma founded Mishcon's Pride Network, and set up the firm's sponsorship of Pink Law, a pro bono legal advice service for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community. Emma was a founding trustee of Action Breaks Silence, a charity that exists to empower women and girls and to educate boys, and is working internationally to tackle gender-based violence.