Sunday Times article - Keith Schilling -22 March 2009
Keith Schilling - The Hot 100, 2007 List - The Lawyer
Features Editor Gemma Westacott talks to Hot 100 star Keith Schilling,
[Interview starts at 12 min 15 seconds] – The Lawyer, January 2007
Keith Schilling named as one of the UK’s top 10 most powerful and influential lawyers - The Times, April 2008
Keith Schilling is Senior Partner and Co-Founder of Schillings, which is regarded as the pre-eminent claimant law firm in England, specialising in safeguarding the reputations of high profile individuals, corporations and brands internationally.
Keith is a Solicitor-Advocate and in 2008 was placed 10th in the Times list of the 100 most powerful and influential lawyers in England for his work in achieving a number of landmark decisions in privacy law.
His work in defamation, privacy, breach of confidence, copyright and contempt, has made him one of the most sought-after media lawyers in Britain. He has helped to protect the reputations of film, sport and entertainment stars as well as top companies and business executives.
“Our mission is to be the first port of call for every chief executive, politician, celebrity and high-profile individual who has an issue with the media,” Keith says.
Keith has represented Oscar-winning actresses Kate Winslet and Nicole Kidman, seven times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, Manchester United and England’s striker Wayne Rooney, Formula One’s Bernie Ecclestone and Celebrity Chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White, Hugh Grant, and Elizabeth Hurley.
“We’ve acquired our knowledge through a lot of high-profile cases. We are really tenacious,” he says. “We are innovative and we are not scared of changing the law.”
In May 2008, Keith won a major privacy case in the Court of Appeal for the son of Harry Potter author JK Rowling. This case effectively establishes a law of privacy for children where the parents wish to protect their children from intrusive photography by the paparazzi.
His ground-breaking work acting for the Law Society in 2006 resulted in a successful judicial review against the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) relating to the retrospective application of rules on disclosure of Court documents. The privacy of thousands of litigants was protected as a result.
Keith represented Roman Polanski, the director of “The Pianist” and “Chinatown”, in his successful bid in the House of Lords in 2005 to be allowed to give evidence in a defamation case via video link from France. It was the first time a claimant did not have to appear in person in an English court in a libel case.
In a claim by supermodel Naomi Campbell against the Daily Mirror newspaper, Keith secured a landmark ruling by the House of Lords in 2004 creating for the first time a right of personal privacy in England. In October 2005, Keith won a third House of Lords hearing after the Daily Mirror applied to have “success fees” under a Conditional Fee Agreement disallowed in the Naomi Campbell case.
In family law, Keith represented Shan Lambert, in the first case in England in which a wife was awarded half the marital assets in a “Big Money” divorce settlement. The 2002 ruling by the Court of Appeal was a landmark decision, recognising the work of wives as homemakers. He also represents clients in pre-nuptial agreements and custody cases.
For press enquiries please contact:
Christopher Mills
Business Director
christopher.mills@schillings.co.uk
020 7034 9000