Top Ten Reputation Managers

There was a time – perhaps a decade ago – when you’d have described Nigel Tait as a defamation lawyer. But in 2020 that isn’t the most fitting moniker.

‘We’re privacy lawyers now,’ says the Carter-Ruck partner. ‘That and data protection.’ Tait has secured payouts and apologies for the likes of Sir Elton John, Liam Gallagher and Frank Bruno, as well as for corporate giants such as Tesco. In the past year, one of the cases he advised on was a major libel victory against The Sun on behalf of Richard Burgon MP, who was awarded damages of £30,000 in the High Court.

But he tells Spear’s that his work covers everything from defamation to privacy, breach of confidence, data protection and harassment. ‘Social media platforms remain ever prevalent and are a challenge with the substantial cyber issues we frequently deal with,’ he says. ‘We work with clients to navigate through the legal problems, including jurisdictional issues.

‘We have seen a stark increase in the amount of preventative and pre-publication work for clients who are the subject of threatened articles or broadcasts. There has also been an exponential growth in takedown work, and getting Google to de-list pages that infringe people’s privacy and data protection rights.’ Tait sees his role as ‘working hard to take the stress out of a crisis – without litigation if possible, but with it where necessary’.