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 is 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. She said: ‘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.’

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 – upholding their privacy and reputation, which can entail litigation.

Ranked as a Tier 1 leader in her field by Chambers & Partners, Jenny has also been inducted into the Legal 500 Hall of Fame. She features in Spear’s Top 10 Reputation Lawyers 2022 and is recognised amongst Billboard’s 2022 Top Music Lawyers.

Outside of client work, Jenny campaigns for stronger protections for children online. As a member of the Children’s Commissioner’s Digital Task Force, Jenny rewrote social media terms and conditions so children could understand them. She was on the Steering Committee of children’s charity 5Rights, and co-authored a report with Baroness Kidron on how Big Tech’s persuasive design strategies impact children. Jenny is also on the UK advisory board for Common Sense Media and is a trustee of global youth charity, Ditch The Label, which helps children navigate issues such as bullying, mental health and relationships.