It has been announced that the well-known media lawyer Gideon Benaim has joined the media and entertainment law firm Michael Simkins LLP as a partner.  Gideon Benaim is a media litigator specialising in reputation protection. He was formerly a partner at Schillings, which he left in June 2012.

He is joining Simkins to head up the firm’s reputation protection practice.  He  has represented many high profile private and corporate clients including JK Rowling, Naomi Campbell, Roman Polanski, Las Vegas Sands Corp, Lance Armstrong and The Law Society.  He won the “Partner of the Year” at the 2008 Lawyer Awards and sits on the Law Society’s Reference Groups for Libel Reform and Privacy.

Gideon Benaim said today:

“It’s very exciting to be joining Simkins and working at a firm that has such an excellent reputation in both contentious and non-contentious areas of practice. As the law and practice of reputation protection develop post-Leveson, it is Simkins’ goal to be at the forefront of that development, providing carefully considered and practical advice to our individual and corporate clients and their PR advisers. I am truly delighted for us to be leading the way.“

Simkins has put out a Press Release [pdf] to announce its new partner and announcement is the subject of an article in today’s The Lawyer.

Gideon Benaim is a popular and well respected figure among privacy and libel lawyers and his taking up of this new position will be generally welcomed.  A leading media law barrister contacted by Inforrm today said

“Gideon is a first rate lawyer who works amazingly hard and talks straight. He is a great hire for Simkins who are on the way into the reputation protection premiership”