Solicitor-advocate Mark Thomson, a leading specialist in defamation and privacy issues, has left his partnership at law firm Carter-Ruck to join fellow media specialist Graham Atkins as a partner in his firm, now re-named Atkins Thomson.
Thomson, 49, includes among his clients Jay Jopling, actress Sienna Miller, singer Lily Allen, chef Marco Pierre White, and supermodel Naomi Campbell, and is co-author of the book Privacy in the Media – the Developing Law.
Atkins, who started his firm three years ago, has been involved in a number of high-profile cases, including Anna Richardson v Arnold Schwarzenegger, Josh Hartnett v MGN, Margaret Ambler v Heather Mills-McCartney, David Soul v MGN, and Fatima Whitbread v BBC.
He has also represented Tony and Cherie Blair, singer Michael Jackson, as well as Cat Deeley, Kate Beckinsale and Sean Bean.
Thomson, who lives in Essex, said: “I have always been impressed by the way Graham has run his firm. He has had an excellent first three years or so and I am sure that the new firm will go from strength to strength.
“I wish Carter-Ruck well.”
Atkins said: “I worked with Mark at another specialist media firm in the past and we complemented each other and combined our expertise very successfully.
“This appointment of an exceptional lawyer in this area of law will give us a stronger platform on which to compete and indeed outperform the longer-established firms in our field, which is our continuing objective.”
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