What do you love about working in media law?

It must be the spontaneity and diversity of the work and the clients alike. Every day will be guaranteed to be different from the next. I could be advising on a blue light show and deciding on whether we should be blurring a chap who was speeding home to feed his cat, and then moving straight into advising on tax credits for HETV dramas which could save hundreds of thousands of pounds for the budget! I genuinely believe you do not get that sort of mix in any other industry. However, most important, are the people. I often think that creatives are a bit like me in that they are inherently positive, ambitious, non-conformist and go-getters. I see it as a privilege to work alongside my clients, to enable them to achieve their editorial goals in a manner that is safe and with manageable risk.

What’s your specialism?

From my years as both a producer and lawyer, I have an in-depth understanding of how TV is made and what it takes to get a show to air. This, combined with broad legal experience in both the scripted and non-scripted genres means I can advise expertly and pragmatically, manoeuvring wherever possible around the myriad of obstacles.

I enjoy sharing commercial insight at the deal making and deal structuring stages, alongside offering legal advice on copyright, trade marks, chain of title, tax credits and the like.

Who gave you your first break?

I would say that I had two first breaks. One as a producer and the second as a lawyer. The first is Jago Lee, who set up TellTale a
few years ago.  He offered me a role as an office runner at Tiger Aspect which enabled me to learn about how TV is made from the ground up. This led to my first move into production as a shooting AP. The second break came from a trio of Tom Davidson, Ed Perrett and Holly Mann at A+E Networks UK. They showed me incredible support when I was working and studying to qualify as a lawyer. They also backed my idea to set up A+E’s first in-house Legal and Business Affairs team. Truly fabulous years. I would like
to thank them all. You do have to put yourself into positions of opportunity, but you need great people around you too.

Why join ABBAS Media Law?

It’s the perfect fit for me. ABBAS Media Law has always been the gold standard when it comes to providing specialist legal advice in our industry so when Nigel approached me about growing and developing the firm’s business affairs offering to include a dedicated ‘scripted’ practice, I was like, ‘…you had me at hello’. I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the best producers in the business across both scripted and non-scripted genres, so this is a great opportunity for me to consolidate that experience and help ABBAS build a global practice that can offer a complete service across multiple genres.   

Any tips for producers trying to navigate their way through one of the toughest periods our industry has seen?

It is bleak out there, but the commissioning ‘emergency stop’ we’ve seen in the last 18 months will not last forever and we are already starting to see green shoots.

It’s also time for producers to get creative, not only in an editorial sense, but commercially. Content is being absorbed and monetised in so many ways now that producers should be thinking about how they can service such a wide range of audiences. If producers can find a way to take a step or two to the left and adapt to this new world they’ll not only survive, but will thrive. I am looking forward to working with my clients to add value by helping them get creative commercially.

We’re all about enabling creativity and minimising risk, can you share a time where you think this happened with great results?

An exec I used to work with came to me for advice on a format that involved a lot of nudity and that would grab headlines, a very common remit for Channel 4. Some of the initial ideas were rather shocking and this is where it really pays off to have a robust production lawyer who has the confidence to step in and say, “too far”. However, after many months of collaboration between the development team and the Business Affairs team, we landed on an incredibly powerful format that transmitted on C4, called Naked Education. It was a huge legal and compliance challenge, and it involved dealing with very sensitive subjects and vulnerable contributors. However, the show told the stories of some incredible individuals who have and continue to battle adversity, the real unsung heroes of our society. This show was the perfect example of how a good collaboration between legal and creative can achieve both aims of enabling creativity and minimising risk.

Tell us one surprising thing about you?

Before qualifying as a solicitor, I used to work as a music producer writing piano scores for various unknown artists and was a shooting producer for multiple independent labels, in particular working on blue light shows.

What are you working on right now?

I wish I could say but of course client confidentiality means I can’t. What I can say though is that, in addition to numerous brilliant non-scripted projects we’re working on for clients, we are now offering a full-service scripted. business affairs, service - and the pipeline is building. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help, whether it’s managing your development slate, financing projects or supporting your entire production from start to finish, drop me a line: antoni@abbasmedialaw.com

What’s on you watch list this month?

KAOS, Slow Horses, The Bear, LOR: The Rings of Power

What do you do to kick back and relax in the evenings?