Simkins LLP

Client Satisfaction

Andrew is an Associate in the Commercial team, having joined the firm in June 2021. Andrew assists a cross-sector client-base on complex technology, commercial and intellectual property issues across various media and entertainment industries. Andrew’s practice includes work in the video games space, advising on AI and Web3 issues and working on advertising projects, including monetisation and clearance. He has undertaken a broad range of non-contentious and transactional commercial work. In the past he has worked with clients ranging from scale-up to FTSE 100 companies. Andrew also advises on various aspects of compliance and data protection.

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.

Deborah Jeff

Deborah is the founder and head of our Divorce and Family department. She advises on all aspects of family law with particular emphasis on asset protection for wealthy individuals, often with international financial interests. Deborah's work includes preparation of pre-nuptial agreements and post-nuptial agreements and the resolution of complex financial issues within divorce. She also advises on relationship breakdown outside of marriage or civil partnership and has extensive experience of children law matters, including international relocation. She acts for clients from a variety of sectors including public figures and musicians. Deborah is particularly known for her understanding of the psychological impact of relationship breakdown and is respected by mental health practitioners.

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

Ed specialises in drafting and negotiating commercial contracts and advising on the exploitation and protection of intellectual property rights. He also works closely with the firm’s corporate team advising on corporate arrangements for individuals and SMEs. His areas of expertise include entertainment (including music, live events, publishing, television, film and theatre), advertising (including branding, market research, sponsorship and endorsement), digital media, IT and technology. Before qualifying as a solicitor, Ed worked in the music industry as an artist manager and label manager. His clients include a number of the world’s most successful artists, bands and DJs, social media companies, celebrity chefs, photographers, artist managers, record labels and festivals. Ed is a guest lecturer at Westminster Law School, a member of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers and speaks regularly on panels and at training events for organisations such as the MMF.

Euan Lawson

Euan is a commercial lawyer and managing partner at Simkins LLP. He specialises in media and entertainment law with a particular emphasis on the music, live events and new media industries. He advises on contractual and copyright issues and works closely with the firm’s corporate group on acquisitions and joint venture arrangements in the media sector. Euan also has a particular interest in the taxation of entertainers and sportsmen and advises regularly on withholding taxes, residence and domicile issues, and the recognition of royalty and other IP-related income. His clients include major UK publishers, music libraries, major and independent record companies, live music promoters, and Hollywood studios as well as individual entertainers, managers, executives and entrepreneurs. He is a member of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers and writes and speaks regularly on copyright and tax law.

Flora Grossman

Flora is an extremely able and versatile family lawyer with an excellent reputation earned over more than 25 years' experience. Flora boasts a thriving family practice with an impressive client base including well known celebrities from the world of sport, music and film as well as other high net worth individuals. With notable successes both in and out of the court arena. Flora deals with the whole range of matrimonial and cohabitation disputes and has extensive experience of dealing with matters where companies are involved. Her expertise in finance and children work enables her to act in both such disputes when a relationship ends, affording clients a complete, holistic approach to their issues.

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

Gideon is a lawyer specialising in reputation protection for high-profile individuals and companies. He has extensive expertise in the areas of defamation, privacy, harassment and copyright. Gideon is a partner and heads up Simkins’ reputation protection team. Gideon represents a number of the world’s leading companies from sectors including financial services; food and drink; and television. A long-term advisor to JK Rowling, Gideon has represented many high-profile private and corporate clients including Mondelez UK, Syco Entertainment, Lions Gate UK Ltd, Canary Wharf Group plc, Braeburn Estates Limited Partnership, The Law Society, Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford Ltd, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Naomi Campbell, Lance Armstrong, Roman Polanski, Nicole Kidman and Gordon Ramsay. Gideon also received the prestigious award for ‘Partner of the Year’ at the 2008 Lawyer Awards. Gideon sits on the Law Society’s Reference Groups for Libel Reform and Privacy. He was on the Civil Justice Council’s Working Party on the draft Defamation Bill. Gideon has given evidence to the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions, and has overseen the provision of evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and to a number of Parliamentary committees. He has also spoken at the Cambridge and Durham Unions on the issue of reputation protection and the press.

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

Jim’s practice covers all areas of intellectual property. Jim has particular expertise in handling disputes which involve trade marks, passing off, designs and copyright. Although Jim has successfully fought many cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal and IPEC, he is also commercially highly aware and will always seek to resolve disputes so as to achieve each client’s real-world business objectives. Jim is also highly experienced in advising clients on brand development, protection and enforcement, and is a trusted advisor to many corporate and individual clients in connection with their domestic and international trade mark portfolios. Jim is also experienced in drafting and negotiating commercial agreements involving IP rights, such as licences, assignments and image rights deals.

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 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.

Stephen Cartwright

Stephen is an Associate in the Commercial team, having joined the firm in January 2023. Stephen advises clients on a broad range of commercial matters across Simkins’ portfolio of media and entertainment clients with a particular specialism in drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, advising on matters relating to digital, social media and content creation, the exploitation of intellectual property and image rights, and data protection matters. He also has a risk, regulatory and compliance background, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional, Europe (CIPP/E). Stephen also has extensive in-house experience and was previously in-house counsel at the Com Laude Group, an international domain name management business. Outside of his work as a solicitor, Stephen is actively involved in the East and South-East Asian (ESEA) creative communities, having previously been a semi-professional dancer, and is a member of a variety of ESEA-based groups including ESEA Music, MilkTea Films, Bayanihan Circle and Occasians. Stephen is also a trustee of a music charity based in Brixton, South London called Grounded Sounds.

Stuart Smith

Stuart is a corporate and commercial lawyer, with a particular interest in advising clients working in the media, entertainment, technology and creative industries. He advises on a wide variety of corporate transactions and advisory matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital investments, shareholders agreements, LLP and partnership arrangements, employee incentives and general company law advisory work.

Susan Thompson

Susan is a Partner in the Employment Department and her practice covers working with both employers and senior individuals in all areas of employment law (including partnership disputes). Susan has particular expertise in advising on collective redundancies and TUPE, and bringing and defending discrimination and whistleblowing claims. Susan regularly advises employers on day-to-day HR issues and employees on termination of employment and severance terms. Susan’s clients include major PLC’s and SME’s. She has also represented senior individuals, including partners in City law firms and accounting practices. Susan seeks to provide clients with pragmatic no nonsense advice. She regularly speaks at conferences and particularly enjoys working with clients providing interactive in-house training on various employment law topics. Susan is often asked to comment on developments in employment law by news agencies, including the Financial Times and the Evening Standard.

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

Victoria specialises in employment law and advises on the full range of employment law issues for both employers and employees. She has particular expertise in guiding employers through restructures (including the complexities of TUPE) and negotiating exit terms and high value settlements for senior employees, particularly those working in the financial services sector (for example, she was specifically instructed by a senior executive following the recent Libor scandal). Victoria also regularly defends and brings claims in the Employment Tribunal and Courts. She successfully represented one of the respondents in the first ever appeal, a seminal case regarding service provision changes under TUPE, Kimberley Group Housing Ltd v Hambley and others, and also the associated case, Clearsprings v Ankers and others. These cases involved over 170 claimants and 12 respondents in relation to the provision of accommodation and support services for asylum seekers for the Home Office. Victoria regularly contributes to various well known publications including a regular column in the Third Sector (the UK’s leading publication for charities, the voluntary sector and social enterprises). She also regularly speaks on employment law issues and chairs seminars, including at the Royal Society of Medicine. Victoria was invited to contribute to a Russell Group university’s research project on the impact of the Equality Act 2010 on charities. In addition, Victoria trains and provides bespoke programmes for senior managers and HR professionals on all aspects of employment law.

Legal 500

Our Team

FAQs

Marketing Resources

Newsletters

Contact us