Dionne is an Associate in the Disputes team at Simkins with experience across media and entertainment disputes and reputation protection. Her practice includes intellectual property, defamation, misuse of private information, data protection, harassment and general commercial litigation, including contractual claims and corporate disputes.

Dionne has acted in numerous High Court proceedings, including representing high-profile musicians to protect their copyright interests, advising companies and individuals within the Film & TV industry on their intellectual property and contractual rights, advising on fraud and breach of warranty claims relating to the sale of a music tech company, working with literary agents and publishers on copyright and breach of confidence claims, and obtaining urgent injunctions for misuse of confidential information.

In the reputation protection area, Dionne helps companies and high net worth individuals in relation to mainstream media and online publishers, both pre- and post-publication. Dionne has worked with clients in the music, film, sports, technology, private equity, and professional service industries to help protect their reputation.

Dionne graduated from the University of Edinburgh with First Class Honours in Law. Prior to joining Simkins, she worked in an in-house litigation team for an investment company in New York.

Dionne was named as a recommended lawyer for ‘Media and Entertainment’ by Legal 500 in 2023 and described as having “a bright future ahead of her.”

Francesca is an Associate in the Dispute Resolution department.

She has experience advising both individuals and companies in a range of high-profile contentious disputes.

In particular, Francesca specialises in civil/commercial litigation, reputation management and media issues.

Francesca graduated from the University of Bristol with a first-class law degree and joined the firm as a trainee in 2021. She qualified as a solicitor in 2023.

Jonny is a Senior Associate at DRD Partnership specialising in crisis and reputation management and litigation comms. His clients range from private HNW/high-profile individuals to the senior leadership of corporates, large charities, independent schools and public institutions.

Before moving into comms, Jonny qualified as a solicitor at Vardags, where he helped advise a wide range of clients involved in contentious reputational and privacy disputes. Prior to this, Jonny was at the press regulator IPSO. This role included handling issues arising from intrusive media enquiries from journalists and paparazzi, providing pre-publication advice to journalists on their code of conduct, and managing press complaints. He was also involved in the ‘Phone Hacking’ litigation while a paralegal at Atkins Thomson (now Thomson Heath Jenkins) and undertook a long internship at the press pressure group Hacked Off.” 

Molly-May is an Associate at Farrer & Co, where she advises on a broad range of reputation management and media issues, including privacy, defamation, contentious IP, and data protection. She also handles a wide variety of commercial disputes, with a particular interest in the theatre, television, film, hospitality and leisure sectors.

Molly-May joined Farrer & Co as a trainee in 2020, having graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2019 with a first-class law degree, the Betty Wu Lee Prize in Law and the Helen Gladstone Prize for exceptional endeavour. Molly-May qualified and was admitted as a Solicitor in 2022.

Katie is a Senior Associate in Lewis Silkin’s media department.

Katie is a media law specialist with over 11 years’ experience representing high profile clients in multi-jurisdictional disputes relating principally to defamation, privacy, harassment and data protection. She is also involved in phone hacking litigation against News Group Newspapers and MGN Limited. Past and present clients range from multinational corporations and leading business figures to international governments and heads of state, high profile politicians and celebrities.

She has significant expertise in online libel and harassment. She has acted both for and against online intermediaries and website operators and has been involved in several landmark judgments on intermediary liability, third party rights and dark advertising.

Katie also has extensive experience providing specialist pre & post publication advice to print, online and broadcast media and advising high profile international clients on reputation and crisis management matters across multiple jurisdictions.

Katie graduated from Queen’s University in 2012 before completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Professional Legal Studies in 2016. Katie is qualified to practise in England & Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Jess is Legal Counsel at Meta.

She was previously at RPC, where she specialised in defending clients against defamation, privacy, media regulation and data protection claims and has acted on behalf of media organisations, publishers, individual journalists, social media companies, media insurers and other organisations based in the UK and overseas. She also has experience in providing pre-publication advice to print and online media.

Before joining RPC in September 2020, Jess graduated from the University of Exeter in 2016, where she studied English Literature, before completing the GDL and LPC at the University of Law. Jess qualified and was admitted as a Solicitor in 2022.

Robbie joined Matrix in October 2021 on the successful completion of his traineeship.

As a media lawyer, Robbie acts for both claimants and defendants across defamation, privacy, data protection and open justice matters. Recent work includes the appeal to the UK Supreme Court in Mueen-Uddin v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 1703; [2021] EWHC 3026 (QB). He acts as junior counsel in the Mobile Telephone Voicemail Interception Litigation (phone hacking).

Robbie’s wider practice focusses on public law and human rights; protest law; extradition; and actions against the police/public authorities, often with an emphasis on information rights and freedom of expression.

Robbie works as a night lawyer at a major broadsheet and for a national broadcaster. He is co-author of the chapter on the Right to be Forgotten in Online Publication Claims: A Practical Guide (2nd edn, forthcoming).

James has worked on a variety of reputation management issues relating to defamation, misuse of private information, data protection, blackmail and harassment on behalf of business figures, politicians, “influencers”, private individuals and companies. Much of James’ work involves complaints relating to social media platforms whether that be complaints to the platform itself or action against other platform users.

His media experience includes acting in pre-publication and post-publication matters in respect of local, national and international publications, broadcasts and press inquiries, often working alongside the client’s PR advisers.

James obtained his BA in History at the University of Nottingham before completing a Graduate Diploma in Law and the Legal Practice Course at BPP University.

Hope joined 5RB in 2021 and accepts instructions in all areas of Chambers’ practice…

Caoimhe is a solicitor in the Regulation, Government, and Compliance team at Brodies LLP, specialising in Dispute Resolution & Risk. Experienced across regulatory and public law matters, as well as reputation management for both public and private sector clients.

Enfys is a Senior Legal Counsel at News UK.

Previously at SMB, her experience includes privacy, defamation, and harassment claims, breach of confidence and data protection. Enfys has worked on high profile cases for the Sun and the Mirror. This includes successfully defending the defamation claim brought by Johnny Depp against the Sun, heralded as the ‘trial of the century’. Enfys provides pre-publication advice to national newspapers and book publishers.

Whilst Enfys acts for both claimants and defendants, her appointment will bring further expertise and knowledge to help strengthen our representation of next-gen respondent lawyers. description