Michael Yates

Spear's Review

Harbottle & Lewis partner Michael Yates is a specialist across a range of contentious matters, and has a strongly international practice with clients including influential Middle Eastern families.

Yates is skilled at obtaining injunctive relief, stopping stories being published in the press and removing content through tact rather than aggressions. He has obtained many apologies, damages, takedowns and corrections for high-profile HNWs. 

A memorable case was the landmark privacy injunction ERY v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2016], which added weight to the premise that a criminal investigation of an individual can be considered to be private information — hence protectable.

Yates joined Harbottle & Lewis in 2025 from Taylor Wessing.