Media Law

We specialise in providing media law support to leading media, campaigning and publishing organisations. We advise on all aspects of defamation risk, including pre-publication advice and clearance for libel risk, media defence litigation and wider support to publishers and other organisations or individuals. Our passion is protection of free speech in the public interest. We also advise on risks arising from publication online, including in relation to claims concerning material published by social media platforms.

We are one of the few media defence firms in the UK to regularly take on cases on a no-win- no fee or CFA basis.

Data Protection

We advise publishers, companies and individuals on their data protection rights and obligations. This includes advising on the journalistic and other exemptions under which personal data can be processed without consent, and advising data controllers on complaints under GDPR. Our expertise includes in depth knowledge and experience of advising on issues concerning the right to erasure.

Intellectual Property Law

We are experts in the law of copyright, trademark, passing off and brand protection. We advise clients on how to register and protect their IP rights in the UK and internationally. This involves guiding clients through trademark oppositions and acting to prevent our clients’ IP rights from being infringed by competing marks.

We also advise on copyright infringement, including in relation to articles, books, music and art. We are adept at assessing the merits of a copyright claim and robustly asserting our clients’ rights to their work, or defending against copyright claims using the different categories of fair dealing.

Corporate and Commercial

We are well equipped to deal with all aspects of an organisation's corporate and commercial legal needs, including advising on contractual issues, company law and corporate governance.

We specialise in advising on breaches of contract, misrepresentation, and appropriate remedies.

Anti-bribery and Corruption, Compliance

We are highy experienced in advising on anti-corruption policies, compliance risks and investigations. We have advised on a broad range of anti-corruption risk areas, both for journalistic organisations and other types of commercial company. We have particular expertise in the UK Bribery Act 2010 and have provided training globally on the extra- territorial reach of the Bribery Act and mitigating risk when operating in foreign jurisdictions.

Employment

We advise on a range of employment law issues including drafting and advising on staff contracts and consultancy agreements, employee policies and settlements. We guide our clients on handling sensitive internal complaints and advise on suitable disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Media Law

We acted for a multinational publishing house in successfully defending UK High Court defamation proceedings brought by a high net worth individual against the foreign based publisher and its journalists individually.

We are currently advising a range of accountability institutions on libel risk in relation to their publications in the public interest on issues such as supply chain human rights violations, deforestation and corruption.

We are highly experienced in advising journalists who undertake undercover investigations, advising on the legal risk, ethical and reputational considerations in undertaking such work, particularly when operating in high risk foreign jurisdictions.

Data Protection

Advised a leading software and data tech company on a ground-breaking interactive tool which maps links between corporations. We advised the client on the risk profile of the data processing, the availability of exemptions and viable compliance strategies. Our assessment of the evolving legal and legislative landscape in this area enabled the client to frame the project appropriately and achieve its objectives.

Intellectual Property

Advised a leading medical tech company on registering the brand’s intellectual property. Advised on the scope of its applications and successfully defended a trademark opposition, including negotiating a concurrent use agreement.

Advised a renowned scriptwriter on the licencing of the copyright in her works and negotiated the terms on which her works are to be exploited.

Corporate and Commercial

Advising a prestigious research consultancy on its contractual negotiations with an international media company. This involved drafting suitable warranties and indemnities to further the objectives of the risk monitoring project.

We have also been instructed to advise a prestigious UK Public Relations Agency on its commercial contracts, confidentiality agreements and indemnities.

Compliance, Risk and Anti-corruption

We recently advised a Scandinavian human rights and environmental organisation on its anti-corruption policies and processes, including training on anti-bribery scenarios, when its field officers operate in high risk jurisdictions worldwide.

Employment

Advised clients on a global approach to staff contracting, including advising on the risk of misclassifying employees. In addition to advising on the UK law position, we are adept at coordinating and streamlining the input of trusted lawyers around the world.

Advised on allegations of misconduct by a contractor and resolving the dispute. We also advised an international not-for-profit on implementing a disciplinary and grievance procedure.

Drafted a suite of staff grievance and disciplinary policies for a campaigning organisation.

Independence and Honesty

We will give independent, honest and accurate advice. This means we will not tell you what you want to hear, but we commit to providing advice that is legally sound and focused on your objectives. We aim to identify and fully understand the legal problem and your wider objectives. We will strive to ensure our advice and work is grounded in solving the legal problem, and meeting your wider objectives. We will think creatively, proactively and intelligently about legal problems, and offer innovative solutions in line with our clients’ objectives. Where we cannot meet your objectives, we will advise you of that, and our views on what best can be achieved in the circumstances.

A lawyer’s first duty is as an officer of the Court. We will uphold our duty to be honest and truthful to the court, our clients and third parties. We will also seek to comply with the applicable laws in any given circumstances, and while we will challenge the law fearlessly for our clients, we will not condone deliberate flouting of the law.
Egality Law has a zero tolerance to the giving or soliciting of bribes or other forms of corruption, at any time. We will neither do so ourselves nor condone any giving or receiving of bribes by anyone associated with a matter in which we are instructed.

Our approach at the firm

We aim to achieve the following at our firm:
We will be punctual – we will generally avoid you waiting in excess of 10 minutes for a pre-scheduled meeting.
We will maintain confidentiality and discretion. We will not discuss client business in any public setting.
We will keep files out of the view of visiting clients.
We will give you our undivided attention – putting other calls and distractions on hold until after the meeting.
If it is unavoidable that we have to deal with something else, we will keep it brief and avoid unnecessary delay.

Accessibility and responsiveness

You can have mobile phone numbers, skype and direct e-mail contact for our lawyers.
When out of the office, we will carry smartphones with remote access to email. If away for longer periods, we will set up out of office notifications.
We will answer our phones when you call us. When this is not possible, we will send you a text message to indicate when we will be able to speak to you.

We aim to respond to client communications within 24 hours, and preferably sooner.

We prefer to communicate by email, rather than by hard copy letter or fax. This is better for the environment and keeps our costs down, which in turn saves our clients money. If a client has a complaint, please let the lawyer working on the matter, our Principal, or our Practice Manager know. We will investigate and address the issue promptly, and let you know how the problem has been fixed.

Our work – procedures, costs and delivery

We will manage client expectations through clear client intake and cost estimating procedures.
We will communicate clearly and ahead of time regarding fees, costs, team members, deadlines, risks and outcomes.
We will discuss a proposed action with a client before we incur any fees.
We will read all documents clients or their counterparts send us. If there is a substantial body of material you send us that we do not consider to be relevant, we will inform you that we are not going to review it.
We will meet or work in advance of our deadlines, or let our clients know in advance if we cannot. This also applies to court deadlines.
Our bills will be clear, correct and prompt; they will be a format that meets the client’s needs.
We will review the first bill with the client and resolve any questions promptly.
At the end of any engagement, we will send a survey to find out how we can improve our service, and make changes based on what we are told by our clients.

Our expectations of our clients:

It is also essential for clients to help us to help them. We have the following basic expectations of our clients:
Attend meetings on time, or let us know if you are delayed. Overrunning meetings impact on our other work, which may inconvenience other clients.
Provide us with comprehensive information to enable us to advise and represent you. We must have all the relevant facts – both those that appear to support the client’s position, and those that appear not to. The more we know, the better we are placed to deal with problems.
Let us know of any specific deadlines you are working to, or particular time pressures, so that we can ensure we set our own deadlines accordingly.
Almost everyone expects us to work to short deadlines. The sooner we are instructed and have the necessary information, the sooner we can provide our work.
We appreciate our clients may be under financial pressure. We will always aim to provide cost-effective quotes for our work. We encourage our clients to be open about their budget for our work, so that we can have a clear early discussion about whether or not our work is affordable for our clients.
We will not work for clients who seek to corruptly or fraudulently influence matters on which we are working

Complaints Handling Procedure

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service, we have provided then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues. If you would like to make a formal complaint, please set this out in writing and address it to the firm’s Managing Partner, David Romain. You should expect a written response and a constructive approach to resolving this complaint within 5 working days. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint, and
No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

Contact details

Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.
Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.