Gideon Benaim joins Michael Simkins LLP

It is with great pleasure that we welcome former Schillings partner Gideon Benaim to Michael Simkins LLP.

Gideon is a media litigator specialising in reputation protection. He has extensive expertise in the areas of defamation, privacy, harassment, and copyright. Gideon is joining the firm as a partner and is to head up Simkins’ reputation protection practice.

Gideon has represented many high profile private and corporate clients including JK Rowling, Naomi Campbell, Roman Polanski, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Lance Armstrong and The Law Society. Gideon received the prestigious award for “Partner of the Year” at the 2008 Lawyer Awards and sits on the Law Society’s Reference Groups for Libel Reform and Privacy.  He was on the Civil Justice Council’s Working Party on the draft Defamation Bill, has provided evidence to the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions, and has overseen the provision of evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and a number of Parliamentary Committees.  He has also spoken at the Cambridge Union on the issue of reputation protection and the press.

Gideon reflected today: “It’s very exciting to be joining Simkins and working at a firm that has such an excellent reputation in both contentious and non-contentious areas of practice.  As the law and practice of reputation protection develop post-Leveson, it is Simkins’ goal to be at the forefront of that development, providing carefully considered and practical advice to our individual and corporate clients and their PR advisers.  I am truly delighted for us to be leading the way.”

Paddy Gardiner, Head of Simkins’ Dispute Resolution Group, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Gideon to Simkins.  He has a wealth of experience and a great reputation, and we see his practice as the perfect extension of our existing copyright and media litigation practice.”

Simkins’ Managing Partner, Euan Lawson, commented: “Simkins has always had a strong commitment to quality and client service, and we have strong client base in the media business.  Gideon has the same values as us, and will help broaden further our client base.  His reputation protection practice adds a further dimension to what we can offer clients, building on the excellent work Paddy has been doing in creating a first class media litigation practice.”

For further information, please contact Euan Lawson on 020 7874 5631 or euan.lawson@simkins.com or Gideon Benaim on 020 7874 5641 or gideon.benaim@simkins.com.