Media

We advise creative business clients that produce, acquire and distribute audio and visual content. Our creative clients are businesses in the media and entertainment industries of broadcasting and digital media (production, commissioning, acquisition, distribution, branding, merchandising), music (recording, publishing, management, licensing, live events) and fashion (model management, image rights, branding, licensing and live events). 

Employment

We advise clients on a wide range of employment related issues with particular experience in working closely with HR professionals in global businesses to get set up in the UK and ensure continued compliance with UK employment legislation. We advise on:

• onboarding and termination of employees;
• set up of employee benefits;
• the preparation of employment terms, offer letters, handbook policies, sales commission plans etc;
• the HR implications of corporate transactions;
• internal restructuring and re-organisations.

Data Protection / Privacy

This is an area of growing importance for most if not all companies operating in the Digital Media and Technology sectors. We advise clients on a wide range of data protection and privacy related matters, particularly in relation to their commercial use of and interaction with personal data whether as a data controller or a data processor. We advise on:

• structuring technology platform and license agreements to ensure compliance with data protection and privacy rules and regulations (particularly in the online advertising sector);
• preparation of relevant and up to date privacy policies, cookie policies, informed consent requirements and related terms and conditions for end user and business client use;
• data protection implications of e-commerce transactions;
• data protection implications of outsourcing and corporate transactions;
• data protection and privacy implications of behavioral targeting of advertising and on-line profiling.

Corporate

We advise clients on a range of corporate matters ranging from mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, private equity, joint ventures and shareholder arrangements. We have a network of contacts across EMEA of similarly sector focused advisors who we work with closely and regularly to cover where necessary the cross border aspects of various corporate transactions.

For many clients we provide an “in-house counsel” service to manage corporate transactions that have a cross border element to ensure external lawyers and other professionals are working in a coherent, efficient and cost effective manner with the aim of ensuring the deal gets done on time and on budget.

Digital Media

We advise clients in the Digital Media sector with a strong focus on working with technology providers in the online advertising industry. We have particular experience in working with US digital medial companies in helping them to get set up and scale their business across EMEA. Our experience includes advising on the structuring, drafting, and negotiation of a range of online and mobile related advertising agreements including:

• ad serving platform agreements;
• ad-exhange agreements;
• supply side platform agreements;
• demand side platform agreements;
• mobile and online real time bidding arrangements.

As part of this offering we advise on the regulatory issues, particularly in respect of data transfer, user consent, behavioral targeting etc., which intersect with these types of agreement.

Commercial Technology

We advise clients on a wide range of local and cross border commercial transactions in the technology sector. Our extensive experience in these sectors include structuring, drafting and negotiating the following types of agreement:

• technology joint ventures (development and exploitation);
• software license, development, reseller, OEM, and subscription agreements;
• platform hosting and access agreements;
• open source licensing arrangements;

We also advise on:

• issues relating to the intellectual property rights in software and data and the implications for their exploitation;
• the setting up of technology sales and distribution models;
• the technology and intellectual property issues arising from corporate transactions;
• use of open source software and open source licensing models.