All of our Associate Fellows are valued colleagues who have contributed to the life of the Centre in various ways.
Robert Allan
Robert is now retired, but he was most recently a partner in the Commercial Group at Simkins LLP. During his first 20 or so years of practice, Robert was a music talent lawyer specialising in the negotiation of recording music publishing and management contracts on behalf of artist clients, as well as the internal legal organisation of the bands that he represented.
During those years Robert represented many household names, including America, Mike Oldfield, Dire Straits, Wham, The Average White Band and The Scorpions.
More recently, Robert's clients have included EMI, who he has represented on a number of transactions, including the acquisition of Chrysalis Records, Filmtrax, Virgin Records and Virgin Music Publishing, as well as in connection with EMI's proposed, but ultimately aborted, merger with Warner Music Group. He also represented EMI in respect of many complex corporate issues following Terra Firma's acquisition of EMI.
Dr Simon Anderson
Simon is a composer and music publisher. He studied music at Edinburgh University, focusing on musicological research for his masters degree. He subsequently completed a PhD at Durham University on early English church music, where he also sang in the cathedral choir for nine years.
Simon’s career in the music industry spans 20 years, where he has worked in licensing, royalty accounting and printed music publishing. Since 2005 Simon has been responsible for the publishing department of global production music group Audio Network. In 2015 he completed the LLM in Entertainment Law with distinction at the University of Westminster, and since then has been involved in the university’s Lost in Music project, a free access resource shedding light on the more complex areas of the industry.
Simon was elected a publisher director of PRS in 2016 and of the Music Publishers Association in 2017. He is an avid vinyl collector.
Sir Richard Arnold
Sir Richard Arnold was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1985 and became a KC in 2000. He was Chairman of the Code of Practice for the Promotion of Animal Medicines Committee from 2002 to 2008, an Appointed Person hearing trademark appeals from 2003 to 2008 and a Deputy High Court Judge from 2004 to 2008.
He was appointed to the High Court, Chancery Division in October 2008 and was appointed to be Judge in Charge of the Patents Court in April 2013.
Following this, he was appointed as an External Member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office in March 2016. In July 2019 Sir Richard was appointed as a Court of Appeal judge.
He is the author of Performers’ Rights (5th ed, Sweet & Maxwell, 2015), the editor of the Halsbury’s Laws of England title Trade Marks and Trade Names (5th ed, Butterworths, 2014), was editor of Entertainment and Media Law Reports from 1993 to 2004 inclusive and has published numerous articles in legal journals.
Sir Richard is an alumnus of the University of Westminster when it was the Polytechnic of Central London. He took our Graduate Diploma in Law, following the completion of his studies at Oxford University.
Arpan Banerjee
Arpan Banerjee is Assistant Professor, Assistant Dean and Executive Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Jindal Global Law School, India. He is also an affiliated faculty member at the Centre for Intellectual Property Research at the Indiana University Bloomington, and a visiting lecturer at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg.
Arpan's main areas of interest are intellectual property law, media law and entertainment law. He has published widely, spoken at major conferences and received prestigious fellowships, prizes and grants.
Recently, Arpan was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation German Chancellor’s Fellowship. He was hosted by Bucerius Law School for 1.5 years, with research stays at Oxford University (as a Visiting Research Fellow) and King’s College London (as a Visiting Scholar).
Before joining academia, Arpan practised as an intellectual property lawyer. He worked on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious matters. Arpan holds a Bachelor’s degree in law from the National University of Juridical Sciences in India and an LLM in Intellectual Property Law from King’s College London. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies from the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Mike Garry
Mike Garry was a librarian for 15 years before becoming a poet. His groundbreaking work with young people in inner city Manchester has won him awards from the National Literacy Trust - he used to read his poems to the hundreds of students he worked with and they encouraged him to perform at live poetry events.
Described by iconic designer Peter Saville as "a genius", Mike's work focuses on the city and its people, championing the under dog; finding beauty amongst the ugliness and triumph amongst tragedy. He has performed his poetry since 1995 and worked in USA, Hong Kong, and throughout Europe. He has been on a continuous tour with the iconic and much loved poet John Cooper Clarke since 2011.
He also performs in prisons, mental health units, children's homes and is passionate about bringing live poetry to places it wouldn't normally reach. He has previously been Poet in Residence for Manchester United, Kendal Calling and Strangeways' Prison and regularly performs at festivals such as Latitude, the Isle of Wight and Festival Number 6. His poems have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines and read on television and radio.
Mike was commissioned by the BBC to write a poem commemorating the life and work of music impresario Tony Wilson. The resulting poem 'St Anthony' was put to music by Salford born classical composer Professor Joe Duddell and has received wide international acclaim. Bernard Sumner of New Order described St Anthony as "brilliant" and Philip Glass described it as "Magical" and asked Mike to perform the poem with New Order at Carnegie Hall in March 2014 as part of the Tibet House Benefit Concert along with The National, Patti Smith and Iggy Pop. The writer, broadcaster and journalist Paul Morley said of Mike:
"Mike Garry walks like a man and talks like a man and writes like a great British Northern poet. That's Northern as in centre of the universe and poet as in using words to go beyond words."
Writing about the appointment of Mike, Guy Osborn said:
'We are delighted to announce that the poet Mike Garry has agreed to join the Centre for Law, Society and Popular Culture as 'Writer in Residence'. This is an exciting departure for the Centre, and we believe that this is the first time a British law school has developed a relationship with a practicing artist in this way. In addition to work with Westminster Law School, Mike will be working with other departments in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and with the University of Westminster Archives. Mike is, in fact, not the first poet to be linked to the University. In addition to a number of poets heavily involved in the work of the Department of Creative Writing, a number of poets such as David Gascoyne, Menghistu Lemma, George Barker, Clive Sansom and Ezra Pound have been involved in the University's work in various forms and we are really pleased to be able to add Mike Garry to this list'.
Daniel Geey
Daniel is a Partner in the Sports Group at Sheridans. Daniel’s practice focuses on helping clients in the sports sector, including rights holders, leagues, governing bodies, clubs, agencies, athletes, sports technology companies, broadcasters and financial institutions.
Daniel has written for myriad publications including The World Sports Law Report and the Entertainment and Sports Law Journal. He regularly appears in the media providing analysis for Sky Sports News, Sky News, BBC, CNN, The Daily Telegraph and others.
In addition, he is the author of the influential The Final Score on Football Law blog. Daniel has delivered and organised a number of valuable sessions for LLB and LLM students at Westminster Law School over recent years, many of which are available via the Directors’ Cuts section of the website.
Dr Holly Hancock
Holly is a lecturer in tort law at the University of East Anglia, and her specific interest is in media and privacy law. Having completed her PhD on the subject, she is particularly interested in the relationship between photographs, social media and law. She is keen to raise awareness of this topic by running workshops to discuss these important and relevant matters with members of the public, photographers and journalists. Holly has worked on media law projects, including a Leverhulme Trust funded project exploring post-mortem privacy at the University of Southampton, and has taught on Media Law Modules at Westminster Law School. She has written articles in this area, including for the Journal of Media Law and the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice. Holly is the Media Law Section Editor for our Entertainment and Sport Law Journal.
Holly has also worked in sports development for a Sports National Governing Body for a number of years, helping with funding support and increasing activity, particularly in relation to sailing, and in 2021 was commodore at her local sailing club.
Lawrence Harrison
Lawrence is a very experienced entertainment lawyer who is currently a commercial mediator and independent advisor to a broad range of clients across a number of creative industries. He has previously been a Partner at Russell-Cooke, Managing Partner at Harrison Curtis Solicitors and a Partner at the Simkins Partnership and has been involved with Westminster Law School for a number of years, including teaching on the LLM module Technology, Rights and the Law.
Visit the website of Lawrence Harrison, Entertainment Law Specialists.
Dr Arve Hjelseth
Arve is a sociologist, currently based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. Arve has been involved with Westminster Law School in a number of ways, including with the organisation and delivery of the Erasmus Mundus Intensive programme developed between NTNU, Westminster and Malmo and research projects with Professor Guy Osborn.
More about Dr Arve Hjelseth on the NTNU website.
Mark James
Mark James graduated with an LLB (Hons) from the University of Leeds before completing the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law. He began his academic career in 1994 at Anglia Polytechnic University with his PhD research on the role of consent and the criminal law in the regulation of sports injury disputes. This work focussed on the appropriateness of using the criminal law instead of governing bodies' disciplinary tribunals as a means of punishing violent play.
Mark was Course Director for LLM programmes at MMU and Associate Head (Research) and Acting Head of School at Salford Law School before joining Northumbria University School of Law in September 2013. He re-joined Manchester Metropolitan University as Professor in Sports Law in 2016. He has maintained his teaching interests in sports law criminal law and torts whilst developing his research as one of UK's leading sports lawyers.
He has published extensively on a range of sports law topics, including in particular the use of the criminal law to punish on-field violence, the regulation of football supporters and the policing of football-related disorder and the criminalisation of public space around sporting mega-event venues, especially the Olympic Games.
More about Mark on the Manchester Metropolitan University website.
Philip Kolvin KC
Called to the Bar in 1985, Philip became a KC in 2009, a Recorder of the Crown Court in 2017, and was Head of his Chambers, Cornerstone Barristers, from 2014–2020. Kolvin is a Patron and past Chair of the Institute of Licensing, the Co-Chair of Crystal Palace Park Trust and a Board Member of the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and the King’s College Hospital Charity.
Philip is also a past Chair of Purple Flag and Best Bar None. He is widely published in the field, his books including Licensed Premises: Law, Practice and Police; Gambling for Local Authorities: Licensing, Planning and Regeneration; and Sex Licensing.
Danny Nicol
Danny Nicol was a Professor of Public Law at Westminster Law School, and a long-standing member of the Centre. He was appointed Professor of Public Law in 2006 having previously been Reader in Law at London Metropolitan University. He holds a BA in Jurisprudence from Wadham College, Oxford and an LLM in European Law from University College London. He was awarded a City Solicitors Educational Fund studentship in order to pursue his doctoral studies at Brunel University, and in 2000 obtained his PhD for a thesis investigating the understandings of British MPs of the constitutional law implications of membership of the European Economic Community. He has written monographs on EU membership and the British constitution, and on the relationship of capitalism to the British constitution. He has also published widely on the UK's Human Rights Act. He serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Public Law. In the field of law and popular culture, he published the monograph Doctor Who: A British Alien? in 2018 along with articles on Doctor Who and Agatha Christie.
Mulika Sannie
Mulika has worked in the music industry for nearly 20 years and is a qualified lawyer. She is currently Legal Counsel, Music at Google where she advises and negotiates on licence agreements for the exploitation of music on Google products (including YouTube) in the EMEA region.
Mulika is also the founder of the UK Black Music Lawyers Network which she set up in 2018 to provide a support network for young black law graduates who want to become lawyers specialising in music. In 2019, she was recognised for her work promoting diversity within in-house legal teams at the UK Diversity Legal Awards 2019 where she received a Highly Commended accolade in the category of Diversity Champion (In-House Legal). She also featured on the Shesaid.so 2019 Alternative Power 100 Music List which focused on Community for that year. In 2020 she was included in the Music Week Women in Music Roll of Honour.
Alex Sinclair
Alex Sinclair has LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Westminster, and is, in addition, a Barrister (Gray's Inn). Before entering academia Alex had a long and successful career working in the entertainment industry, particularly in the music industry where he worked for a number of years for the Robert Stigwood Organisation amongst others.
Alex has taught in the Law School for a number of years and continues to contribute to the LLB and LLM programmes across a number of subject areas. His research interests are in the area of film and law, and as well as helping organise the BBFC/University of Westminster exhibition in 2012, also published a chapter in the British Film Industry text 'Behind the Scenes at the BBFC. Film Classification from the Silver Screen to the Digital Age' and continues to be involved in law and film research.
Adam Wolanski KC
Adam is a specialist in defamation, privacy, breach of confidence and all other areas of media and information law. His recent work includes acting for the successful defendant in Johnny Depp’s libel action against The Sun and for the BBC in the case brought by the attorney general to injunct the disclosure of the identity of an MI5 covert human intelligence source.
Other recent cases in which he has been involved include Rebekah Vardy v Coleen Rooney - the Wagatha Christie case - in which Adam represented News Group Newspapers on applications for disclosure of documents and journalists’ sources, and Gerrard v ENRC, in which he acted for solicitor Neil Gerrard in a claim concerning secret surveillance.
Adam represented Sir Elton John’s ex-wife Renate Blauel in her claim against the singer for breach of contractual privacy. He was also instructed in Sir Cliff Richard v BBC (privacy), Tariq Khuja v Times Newspapers (reporting restrictions) and Andrew Mitchell MP v NGN (the 'plebgate' libel claim). He acted for the successful appellant in the 2021 Court of Appeal case concerning the lis pendens provisions of the Lugano Convention, Wright v Granath.
He was named one of just 17 practising barristers in The Lawyer magazine’s Hot 100 list for 2021. The magazine said of Adam that “in this particularly fierce corner of the disputes Market”, he “has marked himself out as one of the leading minds at the Bar”.
Adam has for many years written and given lectures and training on media issues to specialist practitioners and judges. He is co-author of The Family Courts: Media Access and Reporting, published by the Family Division of the High Court, the Judicial College and the Society of Editors. Adam is a co-author of The Law of Privacy and the Media (OUP).