(May 4, 2004) International law firm Reed Smith is delighted to announce a boost to its litigation department with the appointment of highly regarded media lawyer, Marcus Rutherford. Rutherford, who joins from Kendall Freeman as a partner, has a particular specialism in media and IT matters and has an active interest in human rights. Rutherford joins the firm on Tuesday 4th May, further strengthening the team to twenty lawyers in the UK.
The hire of Rutherford demonstrates Reed Smith’s firmwide commitment to the growth of its emerging media expertise. Earlier this year, the US litigation practice poached 21 advertising and marketing expert attorneys from Hall Dickler LLP to lead the newly created Advertising and Marketing Law Group. This announcement also follows the addition of UK litigation associate, Christopher Moore who joined from Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP last month.
Rutherford spent some twenty two years at D J Freeman (now Kendall Freeman) where he helped develop the media unit and was responsible for developing close links with several broadcasters including Channel 4, Five, and Carlton, and a number of high profile indviduals like Mohammed al Fayed and Ernest Saunders. He has acted on a number of important cases including the contested take over for Distillers, the Pensions Trust case for Melton Medes as well as in several press freedom cases for broadcasters. He is a well known Arbitrator having published over 400 Awards, and is currently acting for Peter Settelen, Princess Diana's former speech coach, who is currently in litigation with her Esate over the ownership of as yet unpublished video tapes.
Paul Fallon, head of Reed Smith’s UK litigation team, said: "We are delighted to welcome Marcus on board. He is a very well respected practitioner and the combination of his strengths with those of our existing UK and US teams, will further enhance our reputation and gravitas within the litigation arena. It’s an exciting time for us to be expanding our practice and bolting on such high level media expertise, particularly in light of our extensive involvement in the Douglas/Zeta-Jones vs Hello
Reed Smith’s UK litigation team is internationally recognised for handling substantial commercial, technical and financial services disputes and is well known for its work in international asset recovery, financial regulation and multi-jurisdictional claims. The team were recently reported as being successfully appointed to Standard Chartered Bank’s legal panel.