Simkins LLP

Ben Gisbey

Ben is a corporate and commercial lawyer with broad experience across different areas but with a particular focus on the music, media and entertainment, technology and creative sectors, dealing with a wide range of corporate, commercial and intellectual property related matters. He advises on corporate and transactional matters including mergers and acquisitions, fundraisings and investments, joint ventures, shareholder arrangements, LLP and partnership arrangements and general corporate advisory work. His clients range from startups and entrepreneurs through to mid-sized corporates and multi-nationals. Ben handles music, media and entertainment matters including agreements relating to recording, publishing, producing, mixing, management, live/touring, merchandising, endorsements, sponsorship and branding, general rights exploitation and deals relating to book publishing, television, film, theatre and sport. His clients include artists, writers, performers, producers, mixers, managers, labels, publishers and entrepreneurs, among others. Before joining Simkins in 2019, Ben spent three years at Temple Bright, prior to which he worked at Bray & Krais for over seven years and before that at City firm Dentons. Ben also worked for independent record labels and as a sound engineer before qualifying as a lawyer.

Caroline Copeland

Caroline is a corporate and commercial lawyer with a wide range of experience in a number of different sectors. She is highly experienced in corporate dealings and transactional work, and regularly advises clients on acquisitions and disposals, shareholder and joint venture arrangements and company restructurings as well as company secretarial and Companies Act advisory work. She advises both companies and individuals on all aspects of corporate law across a range of sectors, including media, retail and publishing. Her clients have included entrepreneurs, start-up ventures and owner-managed businesses through to mid-sized and listed companies. Caroline has also developed a thriving commercial practice, advising on and negotiating commercial contracts. She is an expert in distribution and agency agreements as well as the supply of goods and services.

David Campbell

David is a partner in the property group. He merged his practice with, and became a partner of, The Simkins Partnership in 1991. He specialises in commercial property and company law having built up a successful legal practice throughout the 80s. David has extensive expertise in commercial property and has abundant expertise in the real estate banking sector. David regularly undertakes a wide range of investment and development work for major property companies.

Ed Baden-Powell

Ed is a partner in the commercial group and advises on all aspects of commercial contracts and intellectual property. His focus is on providing the firm’s corporate and entrepreneur clients with advice on their key business and operational contracts and, in particular, high-value services agreements, outsourcing arrangements, and brand protection and rights-exploitation arrangements. Ed has particular experience in acting for clients in the entertainment and media sector, including a number of leading global rights-owners, sports bodies and entertainers, and advising on a broad range of contracts within the media and sports industries, including live events. He also works closely with the firm’s corporate team on acquisitions, joint ventures and commercial franchising across a range of sectors. Before qualifying as a solicitor in the City, Ed worked in the music industry and founded his own production company, winning a MOBO award for best producer and producing several platinum records, including with Seal and Shola Ama. Ed is the co-author of the ‘Intellectual Property and Media Law Companion’ published by Bloomsbury Professional and is on the editorial board of ‘Entertainment Law Review’.

Ed Weidman

Partner

Euan Lawson

Partner

Giao Pacey

Giao is a corporate lawyer experienced in dealing with a broad range of corporate and corporate finance work, both in the private and public arenas. She is highly experienced in dealing with fundraisings and listings on the UK public markets, predominantly on AIM and PLUS, and regularly advises private and public companies and other advisers on raising funds through equity financing, such as private placings, initial public offerings, secondary offerings, and tax incentive schemes, as well as through debt financing. In addition, her corporate and commercial experience covers the gamut of private company transactional and advisory work including mergers and acquisitions, company restructuring and reorganisations, joint ventures, and general commercial contracts.

Gideon Benaim

Partner

Hugo Mason

Hugo Mason is a former entertainment industry professional, now a solicitor specialising in Media Disputes. Hugo qualified as a solicitor in September 2019. Since then, his primary focus has been on disputes involving intellectual property infringement, defamation, harassment, misuse of private information, data protection, civil liberties and human rights. His clients include high-profile individuals and organisations and he has fought a number of cases through to trial, including at the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

James Harman

James is a partner in the commercial group and specialises in entertainment industry work. His expertise includes recording, publishing and all other types of talent contracts. He has strong know-how in book publishing work and non-contentious intellectual property law, including advice on copyright, passing off and a variety of copyright-based commercial contracts such as merchandising contracts. James regularly advises clients on publishing, recording, management, merchandising and joint venture agreements. Focusing his practice on the music and entertainment business, James acts for a number of high-profile songwriters, artist managers, jazz, pop and rock acts, authors, publishers and record labels.

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.

Jim Dennis

Partner

Jon Oakley

Jon specialises in reputation protection and crisis management for companies and high-profile individuals. Jon’s clients have included listed and privately held companies as well as private clients. Notable clients have included Tullett Prebon plc, Abercrombie & Fitch, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Jon has been instrumental in numerous landmark court successes over the years and has regularly dealt with emergency matters on behalf of high-profile clients. In addition to purely litigious matters, Jon also works with listed and privately held businesses by using the law to contain threats to their reputations before any commercial damage is suffered. Jon was on the Working Group appointed to draft the Pre-Action Protocol for Defamation on behalf of the Civil Justice Council. He has provided submissions to a number of Parliamentary Committees, and to the Leveson Inquiry. He has had a number of articles published.

Jonathan Blair

Jonathan is a commercial lawyer with a strong sectoral focus in film, television, publishing and digital media. He advises producers and financiers on all aspects of film and television financing, including production finance, tax-based and other government incentives, bank finance, distribution pre-sales and gap financing. He has an extensive knowledge of the sources of finance and works closely with clients in structuring financing packages and deals. Jonathan’s many clients include film and television production companies, and he is an experienced business affairs lawyer with a rich knowledge-base in all aspects of film and television production in many genres. He also assists clients in building their businesses with a view to sale, and has represented a number of clients in their negotiations for the disposal of their businesses. With the rise of digital media, Jonathan has developed expertise in all aspects of digital distribution and convergence. His clients in this area include distributors of mobile phone entertainment, online content distributors, authors and producers. Jonathan is a regular speaker on film, television and digital media.

Juliane Althoff

Jules is an Associate in the Commercial group. Jules is an experienced film and television lawyer across a variety of genres and platforms (both traditional and new media). She regularly advises producers and other content creators on the full range of audio-visual productions (both scripted and non-scripted) from development, production, and financing, through to the distribution and exploitation of content. In addition to advising production companies and rights holders, Jules has strong experience working with financiers on all aspects of both film and television financing.

Nick Eziefula

Nick is a Partner in the Commercial group. He specialises in commercial law and intellectual property, with a particular emphasis on the media and entertainment industries. He provides legal and commercial advice on the exploitation, licensing and distribution of content, the development of technology and the supply of products and services. He has expertise in software licensing, e-commerce, consumer law and data protection. He also works with market-leaders in the marketing and communications sector, advising on commercial arrangements between agencies, their clients, suppliers and media owners and providing guidance on compliance and regulatory issues. Nick has a passion for music, having worked as a recording artist himself, releasing several albums and touring internationally. He draws on this experience when advising his music industry clients on all aspects of their business. He also advises brands and agencies on rights clearance and strategic issues in relation to their use of music. Nick joined the firm in 2010 from Olswang, where he trained. He also has extensive in-house experience, having worked at a major record label, a global software/online services giant and a ground-breaking digital entertainment platform.

Paddy Grafton Green

Paddy is senior partner at Simkins LLP. He is a commercial media lawyer, advising a range of creative industry clients. Over his longstanding career, Paddy has built up extensive expertise in the music, TV and film, theatre and publishing sectors. He regularly advises clients on recording, publishing, public appearance, management, sponsorship, merchandising, production and distribution arrangements. In addition to his extensive media expertise, Paddy is well versed in advising on corporate and employment matters and domestic and international taxation issues. His far-reaching client base consists of media companies, artists and high-net-worth individuals, in particular in the music business.

Paddy Gardiner

Paddy is head of the firm’s disputes group. He handles disputes across a range of sectors, particularly in the media and entertainment industries, including: breach of contract, professional negligence and shareholder claims; complex copyright and trade mark infringement claims; injunction proceedings; and proceedings in the Copyright, Tax and Competition Appeals Tribunals. Paddy has litigated many disputes through to trial, although where possible he seeks to settle them through ADR. He always seeks to deploy a sensible, pragmatic and cost-effective approach for clients. He has represented both corporates and HNW individuals, including PRS for Music, Sir Elton John, U2, PPL and the Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley estates.

Susan Thompson

Partner

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.

Victoria Willson

Partner