Jon Oakley

Partner

Jon Oakley specialises in reputation protection and crisis management for companies and high profile individuals. Jon’s clients have included listed and privately held companies as well as private clients. Notable clients have included Sir Cliff Richard (in his litigation against the BBC and South Yorkshire Police).

Jon has been instrumental in numerous landmark court successes over the years and has regularly dealt with emergency matters on behalf of high-profile clients. In addition to purely litigious matters, Jon also works with listed and privately held businesses by using the law to help contain threats to their reputations so as to mitigate any commercial damage is suffered.

Jon was on the Working Group appointed to draft the Pre-Action Protocol for Defamation on behalf of the Civil Justice Council. He has provided submissions to a number of Parliamentary Committees, and to the Leveson Inquiry. Jon is a contributor to the textbook Entertainment Law & Litigation.

Jon is ranked in both the Chambers UK 2025 Guide and the Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2024 for Defamation/Reputation Management. Referring to his “encyclopaedic knowledge” of the sector, Chambers acknowledges Jon as a “top-drawer lawyer” who is “meticulous, responsive, commercial and insightful.

Jon is also recognised in the Legal 500 UK 2025 Guide. The Guide praises Jon as “excellent, trustworthy, rational and thoughtful” to work with on “complex and sometimes difficult cases”.

If you have a reputation protection issue that requires urgent, out-of-hours advice, please call +44 20 7874 5757.

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Huge effort, attention to detail and great concern for their clients.
Chambers & Partners
High standards, good division of practices. In addition to the firm’s specialities, it acts as a “one-stop shop” where sensible so that the client can simply pick up the phone and get things done.
Legal 500
Quality and the feeling you have the best people on your team.
Legal 500
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Source
A shrewd litigator.
Chambers & Partners
Great and enormously supportive.
Legal 500
Tenacious and thorough.
Chambers & Partners
Really erudite, calm, collected and thoughtful, and also very practical.
Chambers & Partners
Wins clients' trust and very much gets them onside, and is very successful as a result.
Chambers & Partners
Jon Oakley is one of the calmest people I've ever worked with. Always on and very responsive.
Chambers & Partners High Net Worth
Jon Oakley is truly fantastic on high-profile matters.
Chambers & Partners High Net Worth
Jon Oakley is personable, knowledgeable and highly intelligent.
Chambers & Partners High Net Worth
Jon Oakley and Gideon Benaim are the leaders in their field. Outstanding.
Legal 500
Jon Oakley is an extremely talented lawyer and has phenomenal judgment.
Legal 500
Gideon Benaim and Jon Oakley are a great team, always super quick response and ready to get on board at a moment’s notice.
Legal 500

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