John Kelly is a litigator who specialises in the area of reputation protection, privacy and defamation. Having been involved in many of the most high profile cases and developments in this area, John is recognised as a leading practitioner by Chambers UK, Chambers HNW, Legal 500 and Spear’s 500.
John works with clients to protect their rights and reputations. Whilst much of John’s work is confidential he represents a number of high-profile individuals, well-known brands, and FTSE 100 companies.
Personal clients include high net worth individuals, successful entrepreneurs, as well as leading individuals in the entertainment industry, music and sport. John has represented a host of well-known clients including the First Lady of the United States Melania Trump, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Steve Coogan, Russell Brand and Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne. John has developed Personal Protection Principles which are used to protect clients reputations, their family and their security.
Corporate clients include leading consumer brands, as well as companies in the financial services and charity sector. Work for corporate clients includes corporate brand protection, advising on the media law aspects of complex litigation, and the protection of private and confidential information in such cases. In addition to this John has extensive experience of dealing with consumer affairs television programmes.
John is well-known in the area of sports law and acts for premiership and international football clubs, players, owners, managers, agents as well as governing bodies.
John is a regular speaker on Reputation Protection and Personal Protection rights both in the UK and internationally including in the US and Australia.
- Reputation protection
- Privacy and Breach of Confidence
- Defamation
- Data Protection
- Crisis Issues including pre-publication work
- Multi-jurisdictional advice and litigation
- Strategic planning and advice
- Consumer affairs and investigative television programmes
- Injunctions
- Copyright
- Trademark, Passing Off and Image Rights
- Reporting Restrictions and Litigation Support
- Cyber crime and blackmail
- “Privacy and Data Protection Rights,” Trusts in Litigation Conference, Athens, February 2019
- “Reputation Protection and Privacy: Comparisons with the US, UK and Europe”, Institute on Entertainment Law and Business: University of Southern California Gould School of Law and Beverly Hills Bar Association, October 2016
- “Social Media, Privacy, Reputation Risk, Identity Fraud, Confidentiality and Kidnapping Risk”, IBC Conference London, March 2016
- “Reputation Protection UK Media Law Briefing”, Beverly Hills Bar Association Entertainment Law Section Los Angeles, October 2015
- “Protecting your reputation and managing the media: what Chairs need to know and do Association of Chairs”, Association of Chairs London, September 2015
- “Privacy Planning for HNWI’s”, IBC Conference London, July 2015
- As cyber-blackmail soars, here’s how to combat it
- From the Duchess of Argyll to Snapchat, how to deal with revenge porn
- “The Right of Publicity: A UK Perspective”, Beverly Hills Bar Association Entertainment Law Section Los Angeles, March 2014
- “Crisis management – preventing reputational damage in the digital era; protecting your organisation’s brand and minimising the negative impacts”, World Business Intelligence Conference London, October 2013
