Louise Hayman

Louise became a consultant to Reviewed & Cleared in September 2016. Before that she had been employed at The Independent and Evening Standard group, where she was Group General Counsel for 17 years.

Having graduated from Cambridge with a degree in English Literature, Louise worked in various roles in the theatre before deciding to go into law. She trained with City firm Herbert Smith, and after a post-qualification year there moved into media law as Programme Legal Adviser at the largest ITV broadcaster, Thames TV. She went on to gain invaluable experience of how media companies are run working as the CEO’s strategy adviser, before returning to private practice at a top media law firm.

Among Louise’s clients during her years at Oswald Hickson (now part of Farrers) were broadcasters, The Financial Times and The Economist, for whom she handled litigation as well as providing pre-publication advice and media law training. At the Independent/Evening Standard she was hands-on across all areas of legal involvement: commercial, contractual and intellectual property as well as editorial.

Louise specialises in providing pre-publication advice to magazines, newspapers and book publishers, to non-profit organisations publishing cutting edge investigations, film and television companies and to social media and other digital publishers. Her interest in training journalists and campaigners has been a career constant, along with lecturing and presenting on media law. Known for her pragmatic approach, Louise relishes day-to-day interactions with journalists and other content creators. Her career high: not the various accolades from professional directories but when, as the sole in-house editorial lawyer at Thames TV, her efforts fighting off one legal complaint were attributed by Private Eye to a “wall to wall team of lawyers”.