Top media litigator backs ‘naming and shaming’ oligarchs’ lawyers
Naming and shaming lawyers who work for oligarchs is probably a more effective way of tackling lawfare than anything regulators are likely to do, a top media lawyer has said.
Media litigator Adelaide Lopez said the “current PR campaign” against oligarch’s lawyers will likely have a more “powerful impact” than “anything the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is going to do any time soon,” according to the Law Society Gazette.
“I think if anything is going to have a powerful impact, it is actually going to be the current PR campaign that is very effectively naming and shaming a lot of these solicitors,” Lopez said.
The prominent lawyer, who acted on behalf of Reuters journalist Catherine Belton after she faced a raft of libel lawsuit following the publication of her 2020 book Putin’s people, added that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had “shone” a light on the use of libel lawsuits to silence journalists.
However, the litigator said she believes the use of libel lawsuits by the “rich and powerful” to stifle journalism “at the expense of transparency” is probably “here to stay,” as she took a pessimistic stance on the SRA.
In reference to US congressman Steve Cohen’s call for travel bans to be imposed on the British lawyers working for oligarchs, Lopez said: “think it is probably going to be more effective than anything the SRA is going to do any time soon.”