The Media Disputes: Defamation, Privacy & Reputation Management Forum

Charlotte Harris is the lead European partner in the Firm’s Brand & Reputation Management group. Charlotte is a well-respected and highly regarded media law practitioner, with experience across areas including pre- and post-publication advice, injunctions, defamation, privacy and harassment. Her clients include corporates, high-net-worth individuals, Members of Parliaments, celebrities and professional athletes, and she advises individuals who are subject to media attention both in the U.K. and internationally.

Gideon is a Partner and the Head of Simkins’ reputation protection team. He is a highly regarded 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 ranked in Band 1 for both Chambers UK and Chambers UK High Net Worth; is in Legal 500’s Reputation Management Hall of Fame and ranked as a Top Flight lawyer in Spear’s 500.

He represents many of the world’s leading companies from a variety of sectors including financial services, energy, tech, food and drink, and television.

Gideon led the team that acted for Sir Cliff Richard in his ground-breaking privacy case against the BBC, which was named “Case of the Year” by Spears Wealth. Gideon has represented many high-profile individual and corporate clients including JK Rowling, Naomi Campbell, Roman Polanski, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Gordon Ramsay, and The Law Society.

Gideon sat on The Law Society’s Reference Groups for Libel Reform and Privacy, was on the Civil Justice Council’s Working Party on the draft Defamation Bill, has given evidence to the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions, and has overseen the provision of evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and to several Parliamentary Committees. He has also spoken at the Cambridge and Durham Unions on the issue of reputation protection and the press.

Gideon also received the prestigious award for “Partner of the Year” at the 2008 Lawyer Awards, was named The Times’ “Lawyer of the Week” in August 2018, and made it into The Lawyer’s Hot 100 list in 2019.

Samantha is a senior associate in RPC's market-leading media and platform defence team.  She specialises in defending speech and content, acting for global platforms, media organisations, journalists, NGOs and private individuals.

Legal 500 has recognised Samantha as a "Key Lawyer" since 2021. She is a highly experienced litigator, having acted on some of the most high-profile libel and privacy actions in recent years including ZXC v Bloomberg, Wright v McCormack and Harcombe v ANL.  Her practice includes pre-publication advice, injunctions and Article 10 appeals to the ECtHR.

Samantha regularly represents victims of SLAPPs and other abusive claims, and co-leads RPC's Media Freedom team.  She has provided evidence on SLAPPs to the Ministry of Justice and has contributed to the Law Society's working group on SLAPPs.

Samantha has in-house experience in Hiscox's specialist tech and media team, and Channel 4 where she advised on legal and regulatory risk over the broadcaster's award-winning documentaries, undercover investigations and other programming.

Dan Tench is a litigator with particular expertise in judicial review, competition law, media law (including data protection, privacy and defamation) and sports law, undertaking many leading cases in all these areas.

Dan has advised bringing and defending major judicial reviews and other administrative law challenges and on competition litigation cases. Many of his public law matters have involved issues of significant political controversy and he has exceptional experience in aligning an approach to litigation with broader political and media concerns. He has prepared senior individuals for appearances before (and attended with them at) Parliamentary Select Committees.

Dan has also substantial experience in advising claimants and defendants in defamation, privacy and other media litigation matters including general reputation management matters, securing injunctions and judgments in leading edge internet cases as well as bringing and defending claims for and against all types of traditional media. He has been involved in responding to many significant data security breach situations with a targeted strategy to minimise the damage, potential liability and disruption caused to the client. He acted for the claimants in the leading data protection case of Vidal-Hall & Ors v Google.

Dan has regularly written for and appeared on the national media including The Guardian, The Times, BBC and Channel 4 News. He also co-founded the Supreme Court Blog launched as a joint venture between Matrix Chambers and legacy firm Olswang.

Emily is an experienced litigator with particular expertise in complex data privacy and media disputes, as well as class action litigation, both in the data privacy and competition spheres.

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.

Tamsin Allen is a senior consultant at Bindmans and Head of the Media and Information Law team. She manages a wide-ranging media practice with an emphasis on defamation and privacy, whistleblowing, information and data protection, copyright and human rights.

Tamsin works closely with crime, employment, family, public law and actions against the police to provide a seamless reputation and crisis management service.

She was awarded Solicitor of the Year – Private Practice by the Law Society for her pioneering work successfully defending high-profile whistle-blowers – most notably in the Cambridge Analytica and ‘Vote Leave’ cases. You can read Tamsin’s interview with the Law Gazette here.

Tamsin is an experienced and skilled media lawyer.  She has acted for Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, since Autumn 2017, advising on strategy and wider legal issues arising out of the information he has brought to light about Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and the Brexit Referendum.  These have included advice in relation to exposing confidential and contentious information safely; giving evidence to Parliament, Congress, the Senate, and the European Parliament; and advice on media strategy.

Mark specialises in media, public and human rights law.

He has acted in some of the most high profile defamation litigation in recent years, such as a 2021 Court of Appeal judgment in which he defended the former Leader of the Opposition for answers given on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show when interviewed as Leader, and in defence of the free speech of a major trade union in a case identified in commentary as one of the top 10 cases of 2019 across common law jurisdictions. He acted as sole counsel for the Labour Party in the most high profile defamation case it has ever faced (under an intense national spotlight and with the other parties represented by silks).

In his claimant practice, he has won extremely large damages in recent years against the BBC and almost all national newspapers in libel, privacy, harassment by publication, and data protection claims. His clients have included politicians, journalists, activists, NGOs, a TV station, and a former Guantanamo detainee.

He also acts extensively for defendants including non-traditional newspapers, online news and bloggers, trade unions, politicians, activists, political parties, and others who face defamation claims for what they have said, often concerning issues of public importance, on mainstream media, on blogs/social media, and in print. His work as Standing Counsel to the Labour Party has involved advising on  defamation, privacy and data protection issues, often fast moving and of national and political importance. He acts for trade unions in industrial disputes in defamation and harassment actions brought in defence of their members, and has acted in defence of their free speech against libel action by corporations with whom they are in industrial dispute.

Tim is Managing Partner of Maltin PR, specialising in Legal PR, Litigation PR, Reputation Management and Crisis Communications.

Tim is ranked Band 1 by Chambers and Partners for Litigation Support and ranked as a leading reputation manager in the Spear’s 500 guide to the top global advisers for High Net Worth individuals.

Chambers describes him as “extremely proactive” and “an excellent ideas man”. The Guide also recognises his understanding of legal and litigation matters, and his ability to “quickly grasp the agendas involved in a case“.  The Guide also describes Tim as “a very passionate advocate for his clients. He really fights their corner and makes clients feel he is very much a part of the team. He takes very complex litigation and presents it to journalists in a way that is digestible without losing any of the accuracy.”

Tim is a regular contributor to industry publications on PR matters, including the Legal 500 Litigation Country Comparative Guide, which recently published his essays on “The role of Litigation PR both outside and inside the courtroom” and “How to integrate legal and PR strategy to optimise litigation results“.

Tim has also written for Chambers and Partners Litigation Support Guides “An Overview to Litigation PR & Communications“, “Hybrid hearings should be here to stay” and “Reputation and legal strategy in civil litigation“.

He was previously Chairman of international fashion brand Hardy Amies Plc, and City PR firm Lehmann Communications, before setting up Maltin PR.

Adam Cannon is Director of Legal for The Sun, the UK’s most popular newspaper. He is a former Editorial Legal Director at the Telegraph Media Group and Group Legal adviser at Associated Newspapers, the Daily Mail group. He has unparalleled expertise and experience in all issues of reputation management and a far-reaching network throughout the newspaper, broadcasting and online worlds, as well as a profound understanding of the key issues within the media and in particular the issues surrounding free speech. Adam sits on the Board of Directors of the MLRC, is a director of the London Press Club, sits on the boards of the Jewish News newspaper, and Conservative Friends of Israel and is a foundation governor of the 290 year old Jewish Free School. He is a previous President of the Cambridge Union. In his spare time, he is an award winning amateur photographer and many of his best photographs are available on his website

Claire is a leading specialist in defamation, privacy, data protection and protection from harassment.

She specialises in sensitive disputes for clients who are in the media spotlight and is recognised as a leader in this field. Her clients include politicians, celebrities, international business people, global corporations, professionals and academics. She has very wide experience in media litigation, including defamation and infringement of privacy, and reputation management. She works with her clients whose rights have been infringed to secure vindication, through the removal of online content, the publication of retractions and apologies and the payment of damages.

Claire gives urgent trouble-shooting advice before publication or broadcast. Often working alongside PR advisers, she helps companies and high-profile individuals to deal with unwanted media scrutiny, with a view to preventing publication of material that would infringe their rights to reputation, confidentiality and privacy. Claire is an expert in the rights of individuals under Data Protection legislation including the Right to Erasure/Right to be Forgotten under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). She works for her clients to secure the removal or amendment of unlawful or inaccurate material published online or elsewhere, including in due diligence reports and “KYC” databases including Refinitiv World-Check and Lexis Nexis World Compliance.

Jacob specialises in defamation, privacy, data protection and reporting restrictions.

Recommended as a Band 1 leading junior by both Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500, his recent cases include WFZ v BBC [2023] EWHC 1618 (injunction re threatened contempt), Taylor v Evans v Murphy [2023] EWHC 935 (alleged conspiracy to injure through breaches of confidence and the GDPR) Mueen-Uddin v Home Secretary [2022] EWCA Civ 1073 (Jameel and Hunter abuse in claim over allegations of war crimes) and Fearn v Tate [2022] UKSC 4 (privacy and private nuisance).

His defendant clients have included national and local newspaper groups and television channels, book and magazine publishers, film, television and theatre production companies, and public authorities including several major police forces.

His claimant clients have included doctors, vets, solicitors, barristers, politicians, trade union, charitable and religious leaders and individuals from the worlds of sport, entertainment, finance, advertising and business.”

Gia Thom began her career in software engineering and philanthropy volunteering. She learnt the ropes in South African tech startups where she delivered small but impactful (and award-winning!) automation projects for large public sector and global financial services organisations. Realising a love for working with people rather than code, she worked her way up to leadership through business development of multimillion-dollar IT solutions across EMEA. Later at Microsoft, she not only led revenue-generating programs for their largest global tech partners but also spearheaded multiple successful diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. After more than 20 years in tech, she finally chose to pursue her long-term dream of advocating for social justice in a non-profit. She feels privileged to do so for Impress today. When not enthusiastically debating the best way to build ethical media and systems for redress, she can be found irking the neighbours by middling piano playing or hosting excellent dinner parties.

Franz spent three years leading led the Bureau's Enablers team, which landed front-page splashes in the New York Times and Sunday Times, and helped prompt leading backbench MPs to push for measures to curb ‘Lawfare’ by private investigators working for oligarchs and autocrats. Before that, Franz spent 13 years as a reporter for Bloomberg, covering everything from politics to economics and mining in west, central and southern Africa, as well as London. He has led investigations into grand corruption, fraud, insider trading and everything in between. Franz’s subjects have included giant commodity corporations, New York hedge funds and a string of colourful billionaires. He has won several prizes for his work, including at the British Journalism Awards, and was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist. Authorities in the UK, US and elsewhere have opened criminal investigations into some of his subjects after his articles were published.

David’s practice encompasses the full ambit of media, entertainment and information law. He has appeared in several of the highest profile defamation and privacy actions of recent years and consistently acts on behalf of leading firms of solicitors in the field and for a large number of the most prominent media organisations and companies (including Associated Newspapers, Google, Facebook, Guardian News & Media and Times Newspapers).

He is equally highly regarded for his work on data protection and freedom of information matters where he has represented public and regulatory bodies and the media in cases heard before both the courts and the Information Tribunal. He also holds a very substantial practice in the fields of public and entertainment law, where he regularly advises the media regulator, Ofcom, and has acted for the United Kingdom Government in the successful defence of the two most important UK media law cases to reach the European Court of Human Rights in recent years.

Michael is a Partner and the Head of the Costs Team with over 20 years’ experience in the field of costs law. He is the ‘go to individual’ when it comes to Part 36 offers and negotiation strategy of high value costs matters and insurance coverage.

Qualifying as a Costs Lawyer in 2010 and as a Legal project Practitioner in 2018, Michael has conducted hearings on behalf of a wide variety of clients and professional bodies. Most notably in the Privy Council of the Supreme Court.

Joining Kingsley Napley in 2015, Michael’s practice involves working with insurers, strategic planning and costs budgeting of High Court matters. He is frequently asked to advise on litigation funding arrangements and client retainers.  He is often instructed by external clients in respect of costs submissions and claims for costs/reviews of costs charged by other firms of solicitors by lay-clients seeking to exercise their right to assessment under the Solicitors Act 1974.

Jeffrey is head of the Media & Communications Disputes team. He advises clients on defamation, privacy and reputation management, and all aspects of the law relating to the media and journalism.

He regularly acts on high profile cases, including injunctions, often addressing the latest issues in privacy law, data protection and press regulation. He gives pre-publication advice to newspapers, publishers, broadcasters, and film producers, as well as advising clients who may be about to become the subject of media attention. He has particular expertise in the protection of reputation online, such as the removal of defamatory or harassing content from websites.

He also acts in commercial litigation, advising especially on cases with a media/technology element, and he has a particular interest in matters related to the video games industry.

He provides in house training for clients, and has been a guest lecturer in media law at City University, London and the London College of Communications.

Helena Shipman, a London-based lawyer at global disputes and investigations firm Kobre & Kim, represents ultra-high-net-worth individuals in cross-border disputes involving fraud and misconduct allegations. She has experience working with international clients to develop litigation and reputation management strategies aimed at mitigating risks.

She advises on defamation, misuse of private information, harassment, data-protection, and copyright cases, as well as on international sanctions. Ms. Shipman has acted before the English High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice.

She has received industry recognition in each of the last four years, including as a Chambers and Partners “Associate to Watch” and a Legal 500 “Rising Star.” Most recently, she was highlighted for her “strength in defamation and privacy cases” and as being “simply the best in her field.”

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.

Chambers UK describes Hanna as “exceptional” and recognises that she “gains the confidence of clients in sometimes quite difficult circumstances.”

The Legal 500 UK describes Hanna as “first rate” and “highly knowledgeable.” Qualified 1999, joined Payne Hicks Beach as a partner 2017.

Christopher Leung is a Senior Associate in Fieldfisher's IP team.  His experience spans a broad range of IP rights including copyright, database rights, designs, patents & SPCs, and trade marks.

Christopher has a particular interest in litigation in the AI, technology and life sciences fields, and has represented clients in proceedings before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, High Court (including the Patents Court), Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and Court of Justice of the European Union.

Christopher has been involved in various high-profile soft IP cases across a range of sectors, including Getty Images v Stability AI (generative AI models), SkyKick v Sky (software), Genius Sports v Soft Construct (sports betting data), 77m v Ordnance Survey (mapping) and Karen Millen v Karen Millen Fashions (fashion).  He has also been involved in patent and SPC cases including ICON v Peloton (software for sports equipment), Master Data Center v The Comptroller General of Patents (pharmaceuticals) and Sandoz v G.D. Searle (pharmaceuticals).  He also advises clients on UK Intellectual Property Office actions and the management of their global trade mark portfolios.

Prior to becoming a lawyer, Christopher studied chemistry at Imperial College London.  In 2017, he obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice from the University of Oxford.

Christopher is listed as a “Rising Star” for patents in the 2024 edition of the Legal 500, and is also recommended for trade marks, copyright and designs.

David’s practice spans information and media, employment, and administrative and public law. He also has a developing practice in sport law. He is ranked as a leading junior in Defamation & Privacy, Data Protection, Employment, Administrative Law & Human Rights and Immigration (including Business Immigration). David was shortlisted for “Technology and data junior of the year” at The Legal 500 Bar Awards 2022. He was a member of the Attorney General’s A panel of junior civil counsel until 2021 and is appointed to the Equality and Human Rights Council’s B panel. David accepts direct public access instructions.

With an exceptional reputation for client care, Charlotte is a leading silk in IP and media & entertainment.

Charlotte is a strong team leader, with an inclusive style that makes every member of the team feel respected and appreciated. She was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge in October 2021. She is also an accredited mediator, with an effective manner that helps to lead warring parties to resolution.

Charlotte was described as a “female QC trailblazer” in Managing Intellectual Property’s 50 Most Influential People in IP 2019.

Catrin specialises in all aspects of media and information law. She has appeared in many of the leading cases in the fields of defamation, privacy, data protection, breach of confidence, and related human rights.

She acts for claimants and defendants; from private individuals to media and non-media corporates including national newspaper groups, broadcasters, global internet companies and public bodies including government. Her expertise [segues into related commercial, employment and public law and also] encompasses harassment, malicious falsehood, media reporting restrictions, contempt of court, media regulatory work and freedom of information.

Notable cases in which she has acted have included Lawrence v Associated Newspapers Ltd (‘phone hacking’ claims), Lloyd v Google LLC (for intervener in SCt), Wright v McCormack (Bitcoin cause celebre), Hijazi v Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson libel trial), Vidal-Hall v Google, the ‘plebgate’ libel case, and Naomi Campbell v MGN (foundation of privacy law).

A lawyer by training, Kate is a partner at strategic communications consultancy DRD Partnership, where she advises corporates, institutions and individuals on critical communications issues.  Having started her career as a litigator at Allen & Overy,  and worked for more than 20 years in communications consultancies, Kate brings unique insight and expertise to clients facing complex or contested situations, often working closely alongside a client’s legal advisors. Her areas of focus include litigation communications, reputation and crisis management, media and stakeholder relations, safeguarding and cyber.

Kate trained at Allen & Overy in London, qualifying into the litigation department in 1997. In 2000 she moved into communications, spending the first 12 years at global financial and corporate communications firm Brunswick.  Since 2012 she has focused on reputation management, with many of her clients having an international footprint across diverse geographies.

Kate is ranked Band 1 by Chambers and Partners for both Litigation Support and Crisis & Risk Management and is recommended as a reputation management expert by Spear’s 500 and Tatler Advisory.