Stephen Joelson

Stephen Joelson is a leading partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Department of Clintons, an award-winning law firm based in Central London for the past 60 years or so, which has recently opened an office in Los Angeles, California, to better serve its clients’ needs in the US.  

Clintons is a market leader in the entertainment, media, creative and sports industries.  It is renowned for its expertise in music, film, TV, theatre, sport, advertising and marketing, brand and reputation management and privacy (phone hacking, data protection, misuse of information, cyber-security).

The firm also provides a full range of legal services in corporate, commercial, family and property matters. With the most highly regarded, specialist music litigation and theatre practices in the UK, Clintons has helped shape today’s industries through its clients and the transactions and cases with which it has been involved. Clintons has provided ground-breaking advice on the creation and use of interactive digital content in music, film, television, branding, gambling, e-commerce, games apps and other software.  

Stephen has specialised in commercial and entertainment litigation for more than 35 years, both in the UK and the US and has substantial trial experience. Prior to joining Clintons in 1999, he practised for approximately 20 years as a barrister in England and as an attorney in Los Angeles, and has considerable and wide-ranging experience as an advocate and litigation strategist. He has a global practice and represents clients from all over the world, including the UK, US, Canada, Europe, The Russian Federation, Africa, the Middle East and Australasia. As well as handling complex litigation and entertainment, media, commercial and sports disputes, he also has extensive experience of alternative dispute resolution, handling numerous arbitrations and mediations, including appeals to sporting arbitral bodies for and against governing bodies. He has particular expertise in handling cases with cross-border elements, as well as disputes involving production, licensing and distribution, profit participations, accounting, audit and tax, intellectual property, passing off, likeness, credit and performer’s rights.

Clintons represents artists, producers, songwriters and managers, studios, motion picture and television production and distribution companies, independents, film financiers, funding bodies, animation houses, format creators, special and visual effects houses, advertising agencies, actors, writers, directors and composers, theatrical producers in the leading productions in the UK and internationally, lyricists and playwrights, designers and choreographers, leading individual sportsmen and women from a wide range of sports, international and domestic governing bodies, event organisers, sponsors, FIFA-licensed agents, and marketing and sponsorship consultants. Clients include Sony, Syco, EMI Music, The Who, The Cure, Radiohead, Paul Weller, Daft Punk, Jamiroquai, Muse, Stereophonics, The Kooks, James Morrison, Plan B, James Bay, Bastille, Royal Blood, the 1975, Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Protagonist Pictures, TVF, LBI Entertainment (Boardwalk Empire), Complete Film Guarantors, and 42 Management.

Stephen is a Barrister of the Courts of England and Wales (1980), Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales (2000) and attorney admitted to the California Bar (1989), US District Court for the Central and Northern Districts of California and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.