Spear’s Review

‘I had fairly strong views from the start that people are very much entitled to their privacy despite being high-profile,’ asserts media law and reputation management partner Andrew Fremlin-Key.

As part of Withers’ litigation and arbitration team, Fremlin-Key specialises in advising sports professionals across a range of reputational matters, from defamation and data protection to blackmail, with discretion always a priority. ‘Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are [in the news] all over the world, whereas we act for footballers in the same sort of sphere and you won’t ever find articles about it,’ he says.

Fremlin-Key is also well experienced in managing high-stakes, emotive issues. ‘Quite often, clients are coming to you at the most stressful point in their lives, and you have to find a way of keeping cool,’ he tells Spear’s. ‘Sometimes your job can be advising clients not to do something, and that can be as valuable as doing a lot of work.’