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5RB Media and Entertainment Law
Tuesday 21st September 2010
Co-chaired by our Heads of Chambers, Desmond Browne QC and Adrienne Page QC, the entire chambers of 5RB are involved in the conference either as speakers or in the preparation for what promises to be an enlightening and stimulating day.
Provisional Keynote Speaker
John Whittingdale MP, former Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. The Committee monitors the policy, administration and expenditure of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its associated public bodies, including the BBC, on behalf of the House of Commons and the electorate. The committee published their report, Press Standards, Privacy and Libel on 24 February 2010.
Guest participants
Sir Charles Gray was called to the Bar in 1966. In 1984, he was made QC, specializing in media and IP cases, acting for most national newspapers and TV channels and for many well-known national figures. Sir Charles was appointed High Court Judge in 1998 and in 2007 retired from the High Court Bench but continues to sit on the High Court Bench and as an arbitrator.
HH Judge Richard Parkes QC was appointed to the circuit bench in 2009. Richard spent his entire Bar career at 5RB and was instructed in many significant cases. He continues to be involved in media and entertainment law as joint general editor of Gatley on Libel & Slander, having been a contributing editor to the previous three editions (9th, 10th & 11th editions). He is also a contributing editor of Civil Procedure (The White Book) and co-edits the Entertainment and Media Law Reports.
Professor Alastair Mullis currently holds a chair in law (and is Dean) at the Norwich Law School, University of East Anglia. He is also a visiting research professor at the Faculte des Sciences Juridiques, Tunis and holds visiting chairs at the Universities of Muenster, Germany and Thammasat, Thailand. His main research and teaching interests lie in the areas of the law of defamation, international commercial law and torts. He has published widely in these areas and is currently the general editor of the new edition of Carter-Ruck on Libel and Privacy.
Dr Andrew Scott is a senior lecturer in the Department of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Andrew’s research interests lie in the fields of media law and regulation, constitutional law and competition law. Current research projects include the role of competition law in the media sector, privacy and defamation, broadcasting regulation and freedom of political expression, and the regulation of journalistic newsgathering practices.
Dr Laurence Godfrey, a physicist and former academic researcher and lecturer, has for the past 10 years acted as an expert witness and consultant / technical adviser in internet-related litigation. He was also the successful claimant in a number of internet libel actions, including the landmark defamation case Godfrey v Demon Internet Limited.
Oliver Codrington is the Head of Compliance and Licensing at the British Horseracing Authority. He is a former pupil of 5RB and has previously worked for the Royal College of Veterinary
Surgeons.
Ian Birdsey is Head of UK & International TMT Claims at Hiscox. He specialises in media and technology claims on behalf of clients involved in the publishing, broadcasting, advertising, marketing, PR and technology sectors. During his time at Hiscox he has been involved in a number of leading media cases. Hiscox has a unique view of the media law landscape as the leading media insurer with involvement in a range of different media disputes.
Alastair Brett is Legal Manager to Times Newspapers Limited, the publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times. Alastair pioneered rights of audience for solicitors in the High Court action, Leo Abse v Cyril Smith and Radio Trent and recently chaired a working sub-committee for Lord Justice Rupert Jackson on a Civil Legal Aid Fund for libel actions. He is now secretary to Sir Charles Gray’s Committee on an Early Resolution Procedure for libel actions.
Marcus Partington is Deputy Secretary / Group Legal Director of Trinity Mirror Plc. As current Chair of the Media Lawyers Association, he gave evidence in February 2009 to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. He was a member of the Working Group on Libel reform set up by the Lord Chancellor and is currently on the Master of the Rolls Working Group on Super Injunctions.
Prash Naik is Controller of Legal and Compliance at Channel 4 Television. During his 16 years at Channel 4 Prash has played a key role in the broadcast of many ground-breaking and controversial programmes, including Brass Eye, Ali G, Beneath the Veil, The Chosen and Inside Britain's Israel Lobby. He was part of the legal team which won the libel action brought by Dr Andrew Wakefield and the Medical Protection Society against Dispatches: MMR.
Andrew Southam qualified as a solicitor at DLA Piper and specialised in intellectual property and general media issues. Andrew moved to Bartle Bogle Hegarty, a global creative advertising agency, in 2007 where he has primary legal responsibility for work produced by the Agency for clients including Unilever, Barclays Bank, Diageo and Audi.
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