Andrew Willan

His background is as a commercial litigator and he has considerable expertise in high value disputes involving individuals with prominent reputations. He is currently acting for Merck Mercuriadis, the music executive and founder of the former FTSE-250 company, Hipgnosis Songs Fund, in ongoing proceedings brought by Hipgnosis Music Limited.

Andrew’s work also covers all aspects of media law and reputation management, including defamation, confidence, privacy, harassment, data protection and intellectual property rights. The nature of Andrew’s work in this area is often confidential, however reported cases of particular note include Max Mosley v Google Inc and Hourani v Thomson & others.

He also has particular expertise in the evolving field of cyber and privacy law, representing victims of highly sophisticated cyber-attacks and privacy intrusions in some of the most significant and ground-breaking cases in this jurisdiction.

Andrew has considerable recent experience in areas relating to the protection, regulation and disclosure of information, including in the context of the GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and claims under the Norwich Pharmacal jurisdiction.

The Legal 500 UK lists Andrew as a “Next Generation Partner” for Reputation Management. He is also recognised by Chambers UK, Chambers HNW and Spear’s for his work in this area.

Andrew writes numerous articles and contributions in the national and legal press, and gives conferences on a wide range of legal issues.

Andrew read French and Italian at Durham University. He qualified in 2013 and joined Payne Hicks Beach in 2011. He was promoted to senior associate in 2018 and partner in 2020.