The media litigation team at Wiggin, instructing Andrew Caldecott QC, Godwin Busuttil and David Hirst, won Litigation Team of the Year at last night’s Awards hosted by The Lawyer magazine. The award recognised the team’s work defending Putin’s People a book by Catherine Belton from defamation claims by Roman Abramovich and the oil company Rosneft and a claim brought by Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation on Kleptopiaa book by Tom Burgis. HarperCollins was the publisher in each instance and defended the claims at trials of preliminary issues alongside the authors.
The award went to the legal team, one of nine litigation teams nominated in the category, the judges said, because it constituted a timely defence of free speech, was work which “spoke truth to power” and provided the memorable moment of an author able to leave the Royal Courts of Justice holding aloft a copy of his book which had come under attack.