Expertise
Rory is a specialist in all areas of media litigation, with a particular emphasis on reputation management, defamation, privacy and data protection.
He is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Rory is also an inaugural member of The Society of Media Lawyers.
Rory is a recommended reputation management lawyer in Legal 500 and Spears 500.
How do you help clients?
My aim is to safeguard the reputation, brands and privacy of my clients, often from the increasingly hostile and transient world of social and online media and platforms.
My pre-publication work ranges from correcting the record to blocking threatened press publication or television coverage, sometimes involving urgent injunctions. Post-publication work ranges from legal ‘Take Down Notices’ and amending the record to legal proceedings in the High Court. It can also involve liaising with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Ofcom. I often work in conjunction with PR and communications experts to provide the most effective solution.
I assist clients in removing or minimising damaging online content, either with pre-emptive reputation ‘audits’ or via ‘crisis response’ measures. This can range from ‘Cease and Desist’ letters to disclosure orders and legal proceedings (including injunctions) against social media platforms, search engines, ‘fake news’ and ‘smear/ attack’ websites and compliance ‘Know Your Client’ databases. I also have extensive experience dealing with online blackmail, extortion and harassment. I often work in conjunction with intel and cyber experts to uncover anonymous attackers.
I also advise clients on data protection issues, in particular utilising the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ and other relevant GDPR rights to remove online content and delist offending links from search engines. This work can include liaising with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and High Court proceedings.
Experience
- Acting for TV’s ‘Money Saving Expert’, Martin Lewis, in his £3m defamation settlement with Facebook regarding scam crypto currency adverts featuring his image without permission.
- Acting for Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou of Easyjet in his libel claim against The Telegraph.
- Securing apologies and damages for numerous celebrity clients in the phone hacking litigation.
- Scuppering an anonymous online campaign of defamation and harassment against a member of a Middle Eastern royal family and uncovering the identity of the culprit.
- Amending the profiles on compliance databases of international clients who were incorrectly ‘red flagged’ (which was preventing them accessing banking and financing facilities).
- Derailing an online smear campaign that used attack websites and anonymous social media posts which were designed to lower the share price of a client who is a listed public company.
- Correcting press coverage of clients who were falsely linked to wrongdoing in the Panama, Paradise and Pandora Papers scandals.