Annual Global Conference 2022

Adam Cannon is Director of Legal for The Sun, the UK’s most popular newspaper. He is a former Editorial Legal Director at the Telegraph Media Group and Group Legal advisor at Associated Newspapers, the Daily Mail group. He was called to the bar in 1997.
He has unparalleled expertise and experience in all issues of reputation management and a far-reaching network throughout the newspaper, broadcasting and online worlds, as well as a profound understanding of the key issues within the media and in particular the issues surrounding free speech. Adam has been involved in many of the key media legal decisions of the past few years as well as some of the most controversial and high profile stories. His most high profile case this year was the successful defence of Johnny Depp v the Sun.

During his 19 years working for the three largest newspaper groups, he has gained substantial experience in high-level and high-stakes crisis management.

Adam is a director of the London Press Club, is on the Board of Directors of the Media Law Resource Center, is a Director of the Jewish News newspaper group, a Governor of the Jewish Free School and sits on the executive of the Conservative Friends of Israel. He is a former President of the Cambridge Union.

David Attfield is a respected media law specialist with over 20 years of experience gained at the BBC in London and at leading law firms. Since 2014, David has headed the BBC’s Programme Legal Advice Department which gives pre-publication advice across the BBC’s output including for programmes such as Panorama.

Prior to his current role, David worked in the BBC’s Litigation Department, defending the corporation in substantial libel claims and acting in leading cases concerning open justice and the independence of journalists.

David’s private practice experience was gained at Hogan Lovells and Olswang where he acted for national newspapers and corporations on media matters. David is a committee member of the Media Lawyers Association.

Before moving to London to work at Channel 4’s award winning Legal and Compliance Department in 2006, Dominic Harrison was a partner in the top rated litigation department in Scotland.Dominic has advised on a varied range of programmes and films across all genres including many Dispatches and Unreported Worlds, 24 Hours in Police Custody, the Sri Lanka Killing Fields series, Leaving Neverland, Escape from Isis, The BAFTA winning documentaries The Murder Trial and The Paedophile Hunter, BAFTA nominated Surviving Covid, and dramas including Brexit : The Uncivil War.

The role played by and the expertise of lawyers in the Legal and Compliance Department is crucial to assisting Channel 4 in producing innovative, challenging and yet defensible programmes. They are brought in to advise creatively at the early stages of projects across every department and genre and have evolved a way of working with editors and programme makers designed to push the boundaries, achieve the Channel’s creative imperatives and not leave the Corporation vulnerable to successful regulatory or legal challenge. The department’s reputation as enablers means they are trusted by programme makers, editors and across the industry.

Gillian Phillips is the Director of Editorial Legal Services for Guardian News & Media Limited (publishers of the Guardian and Observer newspapers and theguardian.com). She qualified as a solicitor in 1984, joined the BBC as an in-house lawyer in 1987, later working for News Group Newspapers and Times Newspapers, where she advised on pre- and post-publication legal issues, including around defamation, open justice, contempt of court, privacy and national security. She moved to Guardian News & Media in May 2009 and has advised on phone-hacking, Wikileaks, the Leveson Inquiry, the NSA leaks from Edward Snowden, the HSBC files and more recently the Panama and Paradise Papers. She also sits as a part-time Employment Tribunal Judge and co-authors the College of Law Employment Law handbook. She is a non-resident fellow of the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University School of Public Policy and holds an honorary law doctorate from London South Bank University.

Mark heads up international law firm Charles Russell Speechlys’ Commercial, IP & TMT practice in the Middle East and is responsible internationally for the firm’s activities in the film and production space. Mark is a Partner with 30 years of experience as a high level strategic commercial lawyer and has been based in Dubai since 1999. Mark specialises in intellectual property and has particular industry focused knowledge in the media, entertainment and events industries.
Prior to joining Charles Russell Speechlys, Mark was the Managing Partner of The Rights Lawyers, a boutique industry-focused intellectual property firm that he founded in Dubai in 2003. The Rights Lawyers was the Middle East’s first and only boutique media, intellectual property and technology law firm.

Mark has been advising production houses for decades. He is known by and acts for many of the production companies operating in the Middle East region and is advisor to the UAE’s Production Forum (the key business association for primary production houses operating within the UAE). Mark and his long-term team have been described by The Hollywood Reporter as “the ‘go-to’ guys for all things media in Dubai”. Mark acts for a variety of production houses, film producers, entertainment and media companies, celebrities and artists, high-end retail franchising groups, leading local telecommunications firms, financial service sector clients, sports bodies as well as technology and app providers.

Some of Mark’s high-profile clients include Image Nation Abu Dhabi, Racing Green Pictures, Voltage Films, Boomtown Productions, regional film directors Ali F. Mostafa and Reshel Shah Kapoor, the International Cricket Council, Al Tayer Group, Majid Al Futtaim, Haier Electronics Middle East, and the Mediapro Group. He also stands on the Board of various companies from the sectors in which he operates including key industry organisations such as the Middle East International Live Events Association. He is also regularly featured as a speaker at industry events, seminars and conferences throughout the Middle East and internationally.

Mark is regarded as one of the leading Media, IP and Technology lawyers in the Middle East and has been recommended by the Chambers and Legal 500 directories on a yearly basis since 1991. Mark is currently ranked in Chambers for TMT (UAE) and IP (UAE). He is also ranked as an IP Star 2020 by leading Intellectual Property directory, Managing IP and highly commended by Media Law International with the firm receiving a Tier 1 UAE ranking upon his joining.

Mark and his team have been widely recognised for their achievements in relation to the legal and commercial aspects of film production winning the Digital Studio award for contributions to the production, broadcast and film industries in the region. They were also awarded the Group Achievement Award from the Corporate Counsel Middle East Awards, having been judged as raising the bar in the legal sector for work in film and in the context of intellectual property generally. Mark and his team’s innovative approach to client needs and the provision of commercial advice was viewed as having gone beyond the ordinary service provided by a law firm.

Derek Huoth is General Counsel and Secretary at Tastemade, a modern media brand that creates award-winning video content and original programming in Food, Home, and Travel primarily for millennial and GenZ audiences. In addition to legal and business affairs, Derek is involved in people operations, corporate development, and international matters at Tastemade. He’s also an active participant in the company’s mentorship program, which he helped design. Prior to Tastemade, Derek was at the law firm of Fenwick & West in Silicon Valley, where he advised start-ups of all sizes and served on the firm’s hiring committee. He started his legal career at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, focusing on mergers and acquisitions and chairing the Asian Associates Network. Derek received his law degree at the University of Pennsylvania and attended college in his hometown of Seattle at the University of Washington.

Emma Hunt is a leading commercial litigator and heads up the Media Law team at Mills Selig, an independent, innovative and progressive corporate and commercial law firm based in Belfast with a renowned Media Law practice.

Emma has significant expertise and experience in the field of defamation and media law and advises all the firm’s media clients. This involves the most high-profile cases for global technology/social media companies, broadcasters, publishers, and newspapers - regularly providing advice on pre and post publication, defamation, harassment, malicious falsehood, privacy, copyright, contempt, reporting restrictions and data protection breaches.

The practice is ranked ‘Tier 1’ by Media Law International and describes Emma Hunt as “a well-known commercial litigator highlighted for her considerable expertise advising on a range of complex defamation and privacy disputes. Her client base includes traditional as well as digital media companies”.

A top-ranked conversational AI and IoT expert and the fourth most-followed CMO on Twitter worldwide, Ken Herron is the Chief Growth Officer of UIB Holdings Pte. Ltd. (UIB). He is based in the US.

Before joining UIB, Ken co-founded the software company SocialGrow. Before SocialGrow, he was the CMO for Online Buddies and before that, the Vice President of Interactive Strategies for Realogy. Ken spent 17 years with AT&T/Lucent Technologies/Avaya, most recently as a Director and Technical Manager in Avaya Labs where he managed a 200+ person global team. He previously served as a member of the advisory board of digital health company TraveDoc. Ken earned his Executive M.M.P. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Masters of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Economics and German from Drew University's College of Liberal Arts.

Ken hosted the award-winning Social Solutions podcast for seven years and is a popular author and frequent speaker on digital transformation and leveraging new technologies to emotionally connect companies to their customers.

Xavier Careaga is an Internet-born attorney. His J.D. is in Universidad Panamericana, in Mexico City, with a thesis named "Coexistence and Conflict of Fundamental Rights on Communication and Information Technologies". He also counts with an LL.M. at Harvard Law School, focused on Technology, Media and Telecommunications Law. In the past, he has worked at UNAM Institute for Legal Research focusing on fundamental rights; worked later several years at Baker & McKenzie in the TMT sector; and at the Mexican Ombudsman Office for Human Rights. For the last 5 years, Xavier has been in charge of several areas on the Spanish-LATAM region for Meta, including litigation, regulatory, electoral, content integrity and product advisory.

Maria Gabriela is an International Advisor at White & Case LLP. She advises multinational technology and social media companies in litigation and regulatory investigations in Brazil concerning content regulation, platform liability, defamation and privacy issues. She holds an LL.M in Law, Science and Technology from Stanford Law School and an LL.B from Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo.

Yasmin Coffey is the Chief Legal Officer and General Manager of Distribution at TuneIn, the world’s leading live streaming audio service, and oversees both the Legal and Business Development departments of the company. For more than a decade, Yasmin has led deal negotiations, litigation activities and contract oversight for leading media and Fortune 100 companies, minimizing corporate risk while ensuring compliance with critical regulatory standards. Prior to TuneIn, Yasmin was a Legal and Business Affairs attorney at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles, where she managed domestic and international licensing and distribution deals. Yasmin started her legal career as a litigator in New York and circled the coasts before settling in her hometown of San Francisco in 2018.

Piotr Pacewicz is a Doctor of Psychology (Warsaw University). He began working in the field of social and historical psychology, publishing a book Abelard's two personalities. In 1983 he published a book about social revolutions. After the Martial Law was imposed in Poland, he became an editor of Tygodnik Mazowsze, the most important newspaper of the underground Solidarność (1981- 1989).

Piotr was also involved in The Round Table Talks in 1989 as a secretary of Bronisław Geremek’s Solidarity political group. In May 198,9 he co-founded Gazeta Wyborcza, the most important quality Polish daily. He has been a political commentator and opinion writer and, since 1995, a deputy editor-in-chief.

A prolific writer, he has published thousands of commentaries, interviews, and analysis. Piotr has created and co-created nationwide social campaigns Giving birth in a human way, Media without women, School with class or Poland is running, changing social consciousness and reality in Poland. A staunch advocate for human rights, he has been fighting with discrimination of women, anti-Semitism and homophobia.

In 2010, Piotr published a book of interviews for Gazeta Wyborcza named Pociąg osobowy. In 2011, he published a book Forbidden love. Sexuality and other taboos (together with Marta Konarzewska). Piotr was awarded the Grand Press Award for The Best Interview (2014) and the Special Prize Dariusz Fikus Reward (2016) for his civic journalism. In 201,6 he founded OKO.press a non-profit, investigative journalism and factchecking project created to preserve freedom of speech and secure availability of information in Poland. Launched on 15 June 2016, OKO.press became a widely recognized, widely cited medium supported by unique community of its readers and won prestigious Polish journalism awards (including the Grand Press Reward for 2016). Pacewicz lives in Warsaw with his wife Alicja and two sons. His third son is assistant professor at Brown University

Piotr Pacewicz is a Doctor of Psychology (Warsaw University). He began working in the field of social and historical psychology, publishing a book Abelard's two personalities. In 1983 he published a book about social revolutions. After the Martial Law was imposed in Poland, he became an editor of Tygodnik Mazowsze, the most important newspaper of the underground Solidarność (1981- 1989).
Piotr was also involved in The Round Table Talks in 1989 as a secretary of Bronisław Geremek’s Solidarity political group. In May 198,9 he co-founded Gazeta Wyborcza, the most important quality Polish daily. He has been a political commentator and opinion writer and, since 1995, a deputy editor-in-chief.
A prolific writer, he has published thousands of commentaries, interviews, and analysis. Piotr has created and co-created nationwide social campaigns Giving birth in a human way, Media without women, School with class or Poland is running, changing social consciousness and reality in Poland. A staunch advocate for human rights, he has been fighting with discrimination of women, anti-Semitism and homophobia.
In 2010, Piotr published a book of interviews for Gazeta Wyborcza named Pociąg osobowy. In 2011, he published a book Forbidden love. Sexuality and other taboos (together with Marta Konarzewska). Piotr was awarded the Grand Press Award for The Best Interview (2014) and the Special Prize Dariusz Fikus Reward (2016) for his civic journalism. In 201,6 he founded OKO.press a non-profit, investigative journalism and factchecking project created to preserve freedom of speech and secure availability of information in Poland. Launched on 15 June 2016, OKO.press became a widely recognized, widely cited medium supported by unique community of its readers and won prestigious Polish journalism awards (including the Grand Press Reward for 2016). Pacewicz lives in Warsaw with his wife Alicja and two sons. His third son is assistant professor at Brown University

Exaggerated, often baseless lawsuits against journalists, publishers, and citizens speaking out in public interest, aiming to silence and exhaust them, are known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP). A leading non-profit quality journalism portal OKO.press from Poland, in recent years, has been a target of a dozen SLAPPs, brought by wealthy and otherwise powerful individuals, often with links to the government. In 2021, OKO.press established a SLAPP in Poland monitoring program, which aims to inform and educate public opinion about the danger that such lawsuits and legal threats pose to democracy.

Dr Wójcik will present an overview of cases against OKO.press and civil society activists and explain why they are SLAPPs and what is universal and particular for Poland in this regard, especially against the background of democracy's attrition in recent years, which includes lowering of the rule of law and media freedom standards. Dr Wójcik will also present a snapshot of current levels in the European Union to counter and contain SLAPPs in member states.

Carolina Pardo joined Baker McKenzie in 1994 and is a Partner of the Firm since 2008. She is currently a member of the Global Steering Committee for the Firm’s TMT industry group and of the Global Steering Committee for the Firm’s Compliance & Investigations Group. She was a member of the Global Steering Committee for the Firm’s Global Antitrust and Competition from 2016 and until 2020 and is currently a member of the Latam's Antitrust Steering Committee.

She graduated as a lawyer and a specialist in International Contracts Law from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. She obtained a LL.M. with emphasis in International Private Law and Competition Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Over 25 years, she has advised major national and international clients on matters related to compliance with data protection, competition and consumer law rules. She has represented clients in investigations and submissions related to data protection and competition matters in Colombia and has successfully coordinated and prepared white paper proposals to national authorities on behalf of major industrial groups in Colombia.

In 2016 Global Competition Review selected her as one of the 100 most influential women in antitrust. The last two Superintendents of Industry and Commerce have selected Carolina as a Non-Governmental Advisor to the Colombian Antitrust Regulator.

Samanta is an associate in the Los Angeles office of White & Case and a member of the Firm's global Technology Industry group. Her practice focuses on advising multinational corporations in high-stake international litigations and regulatory investigations, with a particular focus on technology, social media, music streaming, online messaging, and telecommunication services.

She serves as a core member of a team that manages international civil litigation and regulatory investigations for Facebook and other tech companies on a global basis, including on cutting-edge matters implicating privacy and data protection, consumer protection, cybersecurity, intermediary liability, content regulation, and unfair competition. In particular, Samanta manages and strategizes complex civil and regulatory matters across EMEA and LATAM and has worked on cases before some of the highest courts in those regions. She also has substantial experience drafting terms of service and use, policies, and other disclosures, as well as providing legal advice to clients relating to product development.

Samanta has also worked extensively representing clients in disputes before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the International Chamber of Commerce, having been involved in matters spanning a number of industries including mining, electricity distribution, and oil & gas.

Prior to joining White & Case, Samanta worked as an associate in a leading Argentine law firm where she specialized in Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Regulatory Law, and as counsel in a multinational financial services company.

Guillermo Cervio is a partner in Baker McKenzie’s Buenos Aires office. With more than 25 years of experience, he is recognized as a foremost practitioner in his field. He founded the IT/C team in Argentina and was the coordinator of the LatAm IT/C team from 2008 to 2017. He is currently a member of the Steering Committee of Baker McKenzie LatAm’s IPTC team.

Guillermo has authored books and articles on legal matters. He has won awards for his book “Derecho de las Telecomunicaciones” (National Academy of Law - Mención de honor, 1998 and Austral University - premio tesina,1997) as well as for the paper he filed in the IX National Congress on Corporate Law (Tucumán, 2004). He has been a professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Austral University, Palermo University, Catholic University and CEMA. In 2003, he was awarded the Folsom fellowship grant by the Center for American and International Law in Dallas.

Guillermo advises clients on corporate, contractual, and information technology and communications (IT/C) matters, as well as regulated areas of law. He has participated in the development of creative solutions from the legal point of view to the challenges that arise in the day to day of technology companies, including how to regulate issues that arise in cyberspace. He has also actively participated in advising telecommunications companies. Over the years, he has also focused on areas of law that include internet, privacy and personal data matters.

Mine Aksoy is one of the founders and managing partner of the leading music publishing company in Turkey, with more than 25 years of experience and awareness. All Stars Music continues to grow and develop every day under the leadership of Aksoy.

After graduating from Izmir American College and ODTU Department of International Relations/Political Science, Mine Aksoy started her career at Universal – Raks Music. After establishing Turkey's first publishing/copyright department, she was one of the founding members and the first general secretary of MSG Musical Work Owners Group Society which was formed as an alternative collecting society with the major publishers and the top 53 Turkish composers and authors – she continued this role between 1997 and 2002.

Mine Aksoy founded Taxim Edition with Mustafa Oğuz and Michael Lang in March 2002. In December 2002, Taxim Edition signed a sub-publishing contract with BMG Music Publishing. In 2006, Taxim Edition with BMG became a JV company in which BMG bought 50% of Taxim edition, changing the name to BMG Taxim Edition. In the same year, BMG Taxim Edition, also signed a sub-publishing contract with Sony/ATV Music Publishing for Turkey. The company became Universal Music Taxim Edition (UMTE) with Universal Music Publishing Group's acquisition of BMG Music Publishing globally, becoming the only publishing company still half-local, to represent 3 of the 5 largest catalogs in the world. In 2013, Universal bought 100% of UMTE. Mine Aksoy stayed as the board member and CEO of the company until August 2015. In November 2015, she started All Stars Music with Yasemen Yazıcıoğlu Korukçu who is the Senior Advisor for the Investment Office of Turkey, VP of Spanish-Turkish Chamber of Commerce. All Stars Music sub-publishes SONY Music Publishing, Sesac, KPM, and Ghostwriter. With a leading Turkish local catalogue, All Stars Music represents top names from Greece and the Middle East.

All Stars Music’s sister companies EMGE, based in Istanbul, and DMPG, based in London, specialize in digital distribution for local artists and young upcoming musicians in Turkey and Greece with their partner George Stampolis from Greece.

With a boutique production studio, All Stars Music focuses on three-sixty projects where music is being packaged with brands and the diversified method of marketing and sales of music is executed. The whole packaging of music in which all the rights are included is a strategy for All Stars Music that is leading to the proper establishment and tranformation of digital life in the local market according to international standards with an added value of this regions musical sound. Besides audio-streaming and Youtube content projects, NFT is the next step at the current moment.

Alexander Wolf, born in Jakarta Indonesia in 1961, is the current President International of SESAC, Harry Fox Agency and Rumblefish since 2016. He is also the CEO of SESAC Digital Licensing Liechtenstein and is a member of the MINT board. After completing his education in Law, he became a Political Protection Officer with UNHCR at San’a, Jemen, caring for endangered refugees. He continued his career as a lawyer in Germany specializing in Corporate Law. This experience allowed him to easily transition into his role as Deputy to the Director of the Mechanical Rights Department and Counsel for International legal issues at GEMA from 1994 till 2006, where he also became the head of the multimedia and online division.

In 2007, following his previous role, Wolf became Managing Director of CELAS, a company set up to represent EMI’s music publishing repertoire for online and mobile use across Europe. He moved onto become the Executive Managing Director of Solar Music rights management (Joint venture of PRS and GEMA administering the Sony and EMI Publishing repertoire) in 2014. Now as the President of SESAC, Wolf continues to help evolve the music industry in a ‘’chance to be engaged with an independent, market-driven organization that is looking to help define the future of the music industry.’’

Mark Thompson is a Senior Associate at Mills Selig and works within the Litigation team.

Mark specialises in media, defamation, privacy and intellectual property in addition to his commercial litigation work.

Mark provides regular advice to the firm’s international and local media and social media clients in the defence of libel and privacy claims as well as providing advice to corporate entities and high-profile individuals in reputation management. Mark also has wide experience in taking and defending claims in respect of copyright and other intellectual property.

Outside defamation and privacy, Mark has a wide commercial litigation practice acting for a variety of clients, including a major public utility company.

Landmarks

• acted as part of the team in defending a complex case involving allegations of software IP infringement
• lead advisor for a large regional utility company in recovery of their volume and disputed commercial debts
• part of the team advising a partner in a regional professional services organisation in dissolution proceedings arising out of a partnership dispute