"Nick is always there to help even with the most sophisticated issues. His advice is business-oriented, concise and well thought out."
Chambers UK, Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media client
"Nick Breen is a go-to for rights acquisition, licensing, and regulatory compliance for the video games sector."
Legal 500 UK, TMT: Media: video games
"Nick is very responsive and has great knowledge and experience of advertising matters."
Chambers UK, Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media client
"Nick is an excellent solicitor - very approachable and understanding."
Chambers UK, Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media client
"Nick is always there to help even with the most sophisticated issues. His advice is business-oriented, concise and well thought out."
Chambers UK, Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media client
"Nick Breen is a go-to for rights acquisition, licensing, and regulatory compliance for the video games sector."
Legal 500 UK, TMT: Media: video games
"Nick is very responsive and has great knowledge and experience of advertising matters."
Chambers UK, Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media client
"Nick is an excellent solicitor - very approachable and understanding."
Chambers UK, Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media client
Nick is a partner in Reed Smith’s Entertainment & Media Industry Group. He is an entertainment lawyer whose practice focuses on music and video games. He is known for advising clients on complex deals involving content acquisition, licensing, distribution, and the strategic exploitation of intellectual property rights across digital platforms.
Nick’s practice spans the full music rights and royalty ecosystem. He has deep experience representing buyers and sellers of recorded music and music publishing assets, having closed over $2 billion in catalogue transactions for institutional investors and music companies. Drawing on a nuanced understanding of copyright law, Nick regularly handles recording and distribution deals, publishing agreements, synchronisation and master use licences, as well as international music licensing.
Nick is Co-Chair of the firm’s Video Games and Esports practice, representing a variety of developers, publishers, and platforms from across the video games industry and providing advice on a range of issues, including copyright, consumer protection, advertising, and artificial intelligence.
A significant portion of his work focuses on the digital content landscape. Nick advises video game companies, online retailers, aggregators, and media platforms regarding content distribution arrangements, user agreements, and consumer issues. He also guides advertisers and production houses on brand partnerships, sponsorship and endorsement deals, and the essential clearance of music and other content rights for use in campaigns.
Recognitions
Ranked in Chambers UK for Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media, 2026
Listed as a Next Generation Partner in The Legal 500 UK for Media: Advertising & Marketing and for Media: Music, 2026
- Listed as a Next Generation Partner in The Legal 500 UK for TMT Media: Advertising & Marketing, 2025
Credentials
Education
- University of Nottingham, Law, Hons
- College of Law, LPC, Distinction
News
- Reed Smith advises RadNet’s DeepHealth on acquisition of CIMAR, strengthening leadership in AI-powered healthcare innovation (13 November 2025)
- Reed Smith practices and lawyers earn top spots in <em>Chambers UK</em> 2026 (16 October 2025)
- <em>The Legal 500 UK</em> endorses scores of Reed Smith lawyers, practices (2 October 2025)
- Reed Smith represents iFIT on acquisition of UK based ReformRX (22 May 2025)
- Reed Smith London excels in <em>Chambers UK </em>2025 rankings (17 October 2024)
- Reed Smith gets 6 Tier 1 practice rankings in <em>Legal 500 UK</em> (3 October 2024)
- Reed Smith recognised as a leading law firm in <em>Chambers UK</em> (19 October 2023)
- Reed Smith advises Believe on its acquisition of Sentric (11 April 2023)
- Reed Smith advises in connection with the sale of MarineTraffic to Kpler (15 February 2023)
- Reed Smith advises Concord on the purchase of the music catalogues of Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford, including their legendary Genesis works (4 October 2022)
Insights
- A New Look at Fair Use: Anthropic, Meta, and Copyright in AI Training (3 July 2025)
- Q&As on the EU consumer protection authorities’ joint guidance paper on in-game virtual currency (27 March 2025)
- Q&As on the EU consumer protection authorities’ joint guidance paper on in-game virtual currency (27 March 2025)
Blogs
- Copyright & AI: German court issues landmark decision in favor of rights holders (11 November 2025)
- UK Government Launches Consultation on AI and Copyright (20 December 2024)
- Navigating the No Fakes Act (7 August 2024)
- Web3 round-up: Spring 2024 - best of March, April, and May (12 June 2024)
- Web3 round-up: Winter 2023/2024 – best of December, January and February (14 March 2024)
- Web3 round-up: best of autumn 2023 (September / October / November) (12 December 2023)
- Web3 round-up: best of summer 2023 (June / July / August) (6 September 2023)
- Web3 round-up: best of May 2023 (7 June 2023)
- Web3 round-up: best of April 2023 (9 May 2023)
- Web3 round-up: best of March 2023 (11 April 2023)
- Web3 round-up: best of February 2023 (10 March 2023)
- Do NFTs have a branding problem? (17 November 2021)
- Get ready: changes to gambling advertising guidance as of 1 November 2021 (12 August 2021)
- Reform to UK consumer protection laws on the horizon (23 July 2021)
- ASA launches influencer wall of shame (23 June 2021)
- Influencer marketing in the ASA's crosshairs once again (3 February 2021)
- ASA finds numerous code breaches following monitoring operation on children's websites (28 August 2020)
- Influencer marketing rules across Germany, the UK and the United States (30 July 2020)
- Ain’t no party like a COVID-free party: A new plan for festivals? (5 June 2020)
- Live streaming - the US edition (23 April 2020)
Events
- Entertainment and Media: December Legal Update (Wednesday-Thursday, December 4-5, 2024)
- Entertainment and Media: March Legal Update (Thursday, March 14, 2024)
- Is my NFT a security? NFTs and financial regulation – what you need to know (Tuesday, March 8, 2022)