Hamlins Media Disputes partners recognised among best reputation & privacy lawyers 2026
Hamlins’ Media Disputes partners, Ellen Gallagher and Christopher Hutchings, have been recognised as Recommended Reputation & Privacy Lawyers in the highly regarded Spear’s 500 2026 Reputation index, which celebrates the best reputation managers and lawyers for privacy and defamation work.
Solicitor-advocate Ellen Gallagher is recognised for being ‘no stranger to high stakes reputation and privacy cases" and for her work in ‘numerous defamation claims, and data protection and harassment cases on behalf of very senior, high profile individuals’.
Ellen tells Spears: ‘What we try to do is prevent, rather than cure. In a defamation claim or a misuse of private information claim, it’s much more nuanced.’
Chris Hutchings, who has more than 35 years’ experience as a defamation and privacy lawyer, tells Spears that ‘the firm’s media disputes department has gone from strength to strength’ and ‘increasingly moved away from litigation and towards prevention.
‘There has been a huge shift towards pre-publication and pre-broadcast work,’ he says. ‘In most cases, it’s not about stopping something being published, but about ensuring that what is published accurately reflects the client’s position.’
Hamlins reputation management expertise
The Hamlins Media Disputes team understands the spread of defamatory allegations and the publication of intrusive, private information can be rapid. The impact can be long-lasting. We act swiftly across all forms of media to prevent damage to reputation and to professional and personal relationships, as well as to avoid intrusion.
The team specialises in relationships rather than sectors, and this is reflected in its expertise across a broad range of industries including music, entertainment, sport, business and politics, and in the outstanding feedback regularly received from clients.
We have vast experience in protecting the reputation of individuals and businesses, with preventing damage our primary objective. We have acted against publishers, individuals and broadcasters on behalf of a broad range of private and public individuals.
To find out more about the team or if you need assistance with any reputation management issue, please get in touch.