New appointments at Harbottle & Lewis

Media and entertainment law firm, Harbottle & Lewis, is delighted to announce the appointment of Tom Amlot as a partner heading up the Family Practice. Additionally, Louise Gordon (Tax), Tony Littner (Corporate and Growth Capital), Cassandra Manita (Film and Television) and Adam Mitton (Digital Media and Technology) and Ben Bye (Sports and Sponsorship) have been made Senior Associates. All promotions are with immediate effect.

Tom Amlot (Family, Litigation) is head of the Family Practice and enjoys a reputation as a first class practitioner in the area. Tom has a particular expertise in the cross over between conventional family work and work involving invasion of privacy. His family case-load comprises all aspects of divorce work as well as private law cases involving children. Tom is collaboratively trained and is a Resolution mediator.

Louise Gordon (Tax) joined the Tax Practice at Harbottle & Lewis in 2004. Her work involves providing advice to clients on both corporate and personal tax covering all aspects of the firm's practice. She specialises in advising on the tax issues arising on corporate transactions, has considerable experience in dealing with HM Revenue and Customs enquiries and tax efficient investments, and also advises on charity tax issues.

Tony Littner (Corporate and Growth Capital) provides strategic corporate and commercial advice to growing entrepreneurial businesses, investors and venture capital funds as well as handling a broad range of company/commercial work. Recent deals include advising the contestants of the BBC show The Restaurant, advising international rights business, Target Entertainment, on its acquisitions of Minotaur International and Greenlit Rights and advising global games publisher and developer, GreenScreen Interactive Software, on its acquisition of Zoo Digital Publishing.

Cassandra Manita (Film and Television) advises the firm's film and television clients on all aspects of development, financing, production and distribution. Her clients include leading UK producers, major production companies in the US and Europe as well as financiers, distributors, writers, artists and directors. Cassandra recently advised on Easy Virtue starring Colin Firth and Jessica Biel and The Colour of Magic starring Sir David Jason. She joined the firm in 2000.

Adam Mitton (Digital Media and Technology) is a specialist in intellectual property, e-commerce, technology and data protection law. He advises a wide range of clients on issues in these areas, particularly in the e-commerce and digital media arenas. Recently Adam has advised clients in relation to the intellectual property and data protection issues arising out of internet based advertising technologies and business models. He also works closely with the firm's Interactive Entertainment Group and advises a number of US based computer games publishers on a range of intellectual property and data protection issues.

Ben Bye (Sports and Sponsorship) advises on a broad range of intellectual property and contractual matters, primarily (but not exclusively) in a sports-related context. He heads up the firm's Sponsorship Group where his work encompasses sports, arts, music and charity events. Recent work includes advising Diageo on its pan-African football sponsorship programme, including the 26th African Cup of Nations.

Managing Partner, Glen Atchison, commented: "This year's promotions follow a year of continued growth for the firm and demonstrate our commitment wherever possible to develop talent from within. All the lawyers that have been promoted have made outstanding contributions to the firm and we are confident that they will continue to do so."

[Ends]
04/06/08

Note for Editors

Harbottle & Lewis LLP
Harbottle & Lewis provides specialist advice to the media and entertainment industries. It is consistently recognised as a leading firm in these areas by independent sources.

Firm overview: The firm's work encompasses all areas of media and entertainment, including film, television, broadcasting, sport, music, publishing, advertising fashion and theatre and remains unique in having expertise right across these sectors.

We provide a complete range of commercial advice to our clients, including: buying and selling businesses and companies, joint ventures, finance, capital markets, commercial disputes, property, employment, immigration and tax. Other specialist legal areas include, sponsorship, intellectual property, legal issues relating to media, including defamation, advertising, brand protection, data protection, privacy, art and gaming and gambling as well as private client and matrimonial work. The firm's expertise in other areas such as aviation and charities is also widely recognised.

Much of our work involves the technology, new media and telecoms industries and we have done ground-breaking work in connection with the digital exploitation of content and e-commerce generally. Specialist knowledge and understanding of the entertainment industry and related IP issues enables the firm to identify and deal with the key issues at an early stage, and then negotiate and provide commercially sound legal advice from a position of strength.

Issued by
Caroline Renton
Head of Marketing
Tel: 020 7667 5231
Email: caroline.renton@harbottle.com