• Art & Cultural Property
• Children
• Relationships
• Wills and Estate Administration
• Wealth Protection
• Trust & Probate Disputes
• Families in Business
• Residential Property
• Criminal
• Dispute resolution
• Charities
• Freedom of Expression & Human Rights

Our IP Media team has an outstanding track record for defending freedom of expression and human rights. Many of our cases have been ground breaking and set precedents regarding “freedom of the press”. The team advises media organisations, individuals, government organisations and NGOs (ie the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, IREX, World Bank Institute, SE Asia Press Alliance and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association).

Our services include:

• privacy
• bribery and corruption
• media law and regulation
• libel, defamation and reputation

The team have worked in the European Court of Human Rights, Privy Council and appeared before the UN Committee of Human Rights. Much of the team’s work is international by its nature.

Recent experience advising:

• Julian Assange on the allegations made against him in Sweden. The team were tasked with ensuring his journalistic rights to free speech were protected and upheld, which included advising on the protection of sources in his work as a journalist. The team also handled the negotiation for Mr Assange’s autobiography, which was the largest advance fee for an autobiography anywhere in the world in this year
• Harper v Seaga: an example of the team operating at the very highest levels again. Another important Privy Council decision as to the interpretation of the effect of the Reynolds defence in the context of political speech. Recovered US$1.5 million damages and costs for the former deputy police chief in Jamaica from the former Prime Minister, Edward Seaga
• groundbreaking case defending Nobel nominated NGO, Global Witness, in a claim brought by the son of the President of Congo Brazzaville to obtain details of sources and prevent publication of allegations of corruption. The case was raised in both Parliament and in the US Senate
• a significant number of NGOs eg Center for Investigative Reporting - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Organized Crime Reporting Project, Journalism Development Group, Global Witness, Index on Censorship, Republic, Open Society Institute, International Alert and Human Rights Watch
• the Foreign Office on free expression
• Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe - which saw the victory of our client the Wall Street Journal Europe in its final appeal to the House of Lords on Reynolds Qualified Privilege. The case has been heralded a resounding victory for investigative reporting, and the publication in issue was considered by the House to be exactly the type of non-sensational journalism that Reynolds was designed to protect. The decision marks a shift of approach in the UK’s libel law
• Associated Press on challenging the long standing reporting restrictions around criminal trials. New and liberal guidelines were given to all Courts by a powerful Court of Appeal which opened up the reporting of many criminal trials which had been eroded in recent years
• R v Dhiren Barot: advice and representation in relation to contempt issues arising from reporting restrictions on terror trials