Jenny Afia

Spear's Review

Schillings partner Jenny Afia is regularly sought out by the highest profile clients. Having represented the likes of Johnny Depp and Meghan Markle, to name just two recent examples, she has a wealth of experience handling the biggest cases on the biggest stage.

Afia has emerged as one of the leading lights at Schillings – a firm synonymous with an uncompromising approach!

With privacy threats coming from more and more sources, Afia often sits down with her clients to see where preventative steps can be taken. ‘We map out what their business and residential arrangements are and what events they have coming up, and look at the areas where it’s most likely that private information could leak. And then we recommend measures to plug any holes.’

If a client is getting married, for example, Afia will check that all suppliers are covered by confidentiality agreements, and if they are moving she will make sure that they retain the copyright of any pictures of the house so that they don’t end up splashed across a Sunday paper.

Adviser Profile

Jenny Afia is the head of the Legal Team at Schillings and leads its entertainment practice.

She helps the world's most successful individuals safeguard their privacy and protect their reputations even when faced by the most concerted and daunting of threats and challenges. Jenny is highly regarded for her dedicated, intuitive and assiduous work advising high net worth individuals across various industries, including those in the spheres of entertainment, technology and finance.

Jenny has been described as ‘lovely, bright and extremely hard-working’. She is a ‘likeable, brilliant lawyer’ and has been commended for her ‘incredible experience and amazing intuition. She is the best lawyer we have ever worked with.’

The vast majority of her work is 'below the radar', countering arbitrary interference into her clients' privacy, the dissemination of falsehoods, and stopping intrusive and/or false stories from being published by the media.

If such stories are published, Jenny acts to quickly correct the record for her clients and sustain their privacy and reputation, which can entail litigation.

In addition to being ranked as a leader in her field in Chambers & Partners, the Spear's 500 and the Spear's Reputation Management index, she is also recognised in the Billboard's 2020 Top Music Lawyers and has been previously awarded the title of Spear's Reputation and Defamation Lawyer of the Year in 2015. She has also featured as the Times' Lawyer of the Week 2021.

Jenny was a member of the Children’s Commissioner’s Digital Task Force and on the Steering Committee of children’s charity 5Rights. She is also on the UK advisory board for Common Sense Media. Her writings on privacy and reputation have featured in publications including City A.M. and the HuffPost, amongst other well-known outlets.