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-- Management Team
LLB (Hons) (First) – London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)
Inns of Court School of Law (placed first in year)
Accredited mediator (London School of Mediation)
Co-author of Duncan & Neill on Defamation (4th ed) (LexisNexis 2015)
Contributor to “Cases that Changed Our Lives” (2010)
Contributor to Yearbook of Media and Entertainment Law (OUP) (1995-2002)
Co-Author “Changing Contempt of Court” (with Andrew Nicol) (1991)
Regular speaker at conferences (including IBC’s “Defamation and Privacy” and “Protecting the Media”) and provides in-house training seminars..
Angela specialises in media law, having been involved in many key cases from the “Spycatcher” litigation [1990] 1 AC 109 HL (breach of confidence in relation to information about the security services), through the Esther Rantzen and Elton John appeals [1994] QB 674 and [1997] QB 586 CA (limiting jury awards of damages in defamation cases) to the landmark decision on the scope of the public interest (“Reynolds”) defence in libel, Flood v Times Newspapers in the Supreme Court [2012] 2 AC 273.
She has a broad practice in the field of media and information law. She represents claimants and defendants, including press and broadcast media. She has appeared in numerous libel trials including Cruddas v Calvert (and others), Harry Kewell v Gary Lineker, Neil Hamilton MP v Mohammed Al Fayed and David Irving v Penguin Books Ltd (for the defendants) and George Galloway MP v Telegraph Group and Roman Polanski v Condé Nast (for the claimant). Privacy cases include the appeals in Hutcheson (formerly KGM) v News Group Newspapers, Ntuli v Donald, Michael Napier & Irwin Mitchell v Pressdram Limited and BKM Limited v BBC. She represented Andrew Gilligan in the Hutton Inquiry.
Angela was instructed by Article 19, the intervener, in R (Guardian News & Media) v City of Westminster Magistrates Court, which established the importance of media access to documents used in open court. She appeared for the media in challenging a novel Crown Court reporting restriction in Re ITN. She has experience of criminal law from a different perspective, as a Crown Court Recorder since 2010.
Angela is a director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information. She was a trustee of Article 19, the freedom of expression NGO, from 2004 to 2012. She works with the Media Legal Defence Initiative on free speech issues, including on “amicus” briefs in Axel Springer v Germany (No 2)(restrictions on political speech in the ECtHR) and Raynor v Richardson (criminal defamation in Bermuda).
Chambers and Partners 2016 – Defamation/Privacy
Prominent silk for defamation and privacy matters who advises both claimants and defendants.
Strengths: "She has formidable forensic skills, provides cogent advice and is a pleasure to work with." "She is a really awesome intellect." "She is very thorough, very knowledgeable and very bright."
The Legal 500 (2015) – Defamation and Privacy:
‘Tremendously supportive and pragmatic.’
The Legal 500 (2015) – Media and Entertainment:
‘She is wonderfully down to earth, and works with her instructing solicitors as a real collaborative team.’
Chambers and Partners (2015) – Defamation and Privacy:
“Lauded by clients and solicitors for her detailed knowledge of the field and her affable and professional approach to client service. She continues to appear in some of the most contentious and high-profile cases of the day.
Strengths: "She has great tactical nous and is a strong lateral thinker." "Intellectual acumen personified, she is a barrister with superb legal ability." "She has formidable forensic skills, and provides cogent advice."”
Legal 500 – Defamation and Privacy(2014)
Angela is ‘seriously knowledgeable, supremely practical and terrifically hardworking.’
Angela has been recommended in this field for many years by both Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500.
Defamation
Since 2014, Angela has been a director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information.
Bryce v Information Commissioner (Information Tribunal EA/2009/0083): representing applicant for information relating to criminal proceedings (following murder of her daughter).
Smith v Headline Publishing Limited [2011] EWHC 2106 (Ch) represented defendant in claims for breach of publishing contract and other associated claims in tort.
R (BBC) v Broadcasting Complaints Commission [1995] EMLR 241 – judicial review in relation to complaint to broadcast regulator (standing of complainant).