David Sherborne

Last updated

David Alexander Sherborne is the son of a KC who practiced as a criminal barrister. [1] [2] Sherborne was educated at UCS Hampstead [3] [2] and at Oxford. He was called to the bar in October 1992, [4] [5] to specialise, like his father (b.1930) in criminal law. [1]

Contents

By 2003 Sherborne had opted to change disciplines in favour of practicing civil law. [6] He is part of 5RB chambers, "a leading set of media and communications law barristers [who] represented Johnny Depp in his libel suit against The Sun" newspaper. [7]

Sherborne played a significant role in the Wagatha Christie 2022 trial, where he successfully represented Coleen Rooney in a failed Libel action, brought by Rebekah Vardy. [8] He deliberately and obscurely drew attention to the missing mobile phone communication evidence from, TeamVardy, declaring the phone to be in Davy Jones's locker, requiring the judge to explain to Vardy, the underlying meaning of the phrase. [9]

His previous high-profile cases have included the representation of Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and OK (magazine) in their suit against Hello! (magazine) for publishing unauthorised pictures of their wedding; getting Amy Winehouse, Cheryl Cole, Lily Allen, Harry Styles and Sienna Miller injunctions against certain paparazzi; and representing the ‘core participants’ in the Leveson Inquiry, including the McCanns, the Dowler family, JK Rowling and Hugh Grant". [10] [11] From 2023 onwards, Sherborne has represented the Duke of Sussex against the Mirror Group and several other UK newspapers. [12]

Career

In 2011, Sherborne [13] appeared on behalf of the victims of phone hacking in the Leveson Inquiry. Twice married, he briefly raised eyebrows when he began dating Lord Leveson's junior counsel, Carine Patry Hoskins. [10] Following a bar complaint from a serving MP they were both cleared of any professional mis-conduct by the Bar Standards Board. [14] Parliamentary figures revealed Hoskins received £218,606 for nearly eighteen-months of fact checking. [10]

In 2015, he appeared for victims in a phone hacking action against Trinity Mirror. [15]

In 2020, he appeared on behalf of Coleen Rooney against Rebekah Vardy in the libel action that came to be known as Wagatha Christie. [16]

In 2023, he successfully appeared in the High Court on behalf of the Duke of Sussex and others against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for breaches of privacy. [17] [18] [19] In December 2023, the court awarded significant damages to Prince Harry against MGN. In February 2024, Sherborne told the High Court that Harry had settled the remainder of his claim with MGN. The publisher agreed to pay Harry substantial additional damages and cover his legal costs, with an interim payment of £300,000. [20] [21] [22]

In December 2023, the Times newspaper [23] named Sherborne as their "Lawyer of the Week" and 5RB chambers website acknowledged the accolade.

Personal life

Sherborne has been married twice and divorced both times. [1]

In 2022 Channel 4 broadcast Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama. Actor Michael Sheen was cast in the lead role of Sherborne in the two-part legal drama.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex</span> Member of the British royal family (born 1984)

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is a member of the British royal family. As the younger son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales, he is fifth in the line of succession to the British throne.

Reach plc is a British newspaper, magazine and digital publisher. It is one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, publishing 240 regional papers in addition to the national Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, The Sunday People, Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, Daily Star Sunday as well as the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail and the magazine OK! Since purchasing Local World, it has gained 83 print publications. Reach plc's headquarters are at the One Canada Square in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piers Morgan</span> British journalist and television host (born 1965)

Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and media personality. He began his career in 1988 at the tabloid The Sun. In 1994, at the age of 29, he was appointed editor of the News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, which made him the youngest editor of a British national newspaper in more than half a century. From 1995, Morgan edited the Daily Mirror, but was fired in 2004. He was the editorial director of First News from 2006 to 2007. In 2014, Morgan became the first editor-at-large of the MailOnline website's US operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coleen Rooney</span> English television personality

Coleen Mary Rooney is an English former television personality. She is married to English football manager and former player Wayne Rooney.

Sylvia Bailey, née Grice, is a former chief executive of Trinity Mirror, the UK's largest newspaper publisher, and a non-executive director of EMI from 2004 to 2007. She was named as one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Britain" by Management Today. She was also named as one of the top 20 most influential figures in media by MediaGuardian and as one of the top 50 most powerful businesswomen outside the United States by Fortune. She left Trinity Mirror, six months earlier than planned, in June 2012.

Sir Charles Antony St John Gray, QC was a British barrister and judge, who specialised in intellectual property, copyright, privacy and defamation cases. As a judge, he presided over the trial of David Irving's libel lawsuit against Professor Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books over claims that Irving was a Holocaust denier; Gray delivered a 349 pages long judgment against Irving.

Colin Myler is a US-based British journalist.

<i>The Sun</i> (United Kingdom) British tabloid newspaper

The Sun is a British tabloid newspaper, published by the News Group Newspapers division of News UK, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Lachlan Murdoch's News Corp. It was founded as a broadsheet in 1964 as a successor to the Daily Herald, and became a tabloid in 1969 after it was purchased by its current owner. The Sun had the largest daily newspaper circulation in the United Kingdom, but was overtaken by freesheet rival Metro in March 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Wootton</span> New Zealand and British journalist and broadcaster

Daniel John William Wootton is a New Zealand and British journalist and broadcaster.

The News of the World royal phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 to 2007 around the interception of voicemail relating to the British royal family by a private investigator working for a News of the World journalist. It formed a prelude to the wider News International phone hacking scandal which developed in 2009 and exploded in 2011, when it became clear that the phone hacking had taken place on a much wider scale. Early indications of this in the police investigation were not followed through, and the failures of the police investigation would go on to form part of the wider scandal in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leveson Inquiry</span> 2011 judicial public inquiry into the British press

The Leveson Inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011. A series of public hearings were held throughout 2011 and 2012. The Inquiry published the Leveson Report in November 2012, which reviewed the general culture and ethics of the British media, and made recommendations for a new, independent body to replace the existing Press Complaints Commission, which would have to be recognised by the state through new laws. Prime Minister David Cameron, under whose direction the inquiry had been established, said that he welcomed many of the findings, but declined to enact the requisite legislation. Part 2 of the inquiry was to be delayed until after criminal prosecutions regarding events at the News of the World, but the Conservative Party's 2017 manifesto stated that the second part of the inquiry would be dropped entirely, and this was confirmed by Culture Secretary Matt Hancock in a statement to the House of Commons on 1 March 2018.

The news media phone hacking scandal is a controversy over illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media organizations that reportedly occurred in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia between 1995 and 2011. This article includes reference lists for various topics relating to that scandal.

Tom Crone is a British barrister, last working for News International as Legal Affairs manager, before he resigned during the News International phone hacking scandal in 2011.

In February 2012, during evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the British press, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers mentioned the existence of Operation Kalmyk, a new investigation related to Operation Tuleta. The investigation is in relation to access to computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Atkins (filmmaker)</span> British filmmaker

Chris Atkins is a British journalist, documentary film maker and best-selling author. He has made several fiction feature films, feature length documentaries and television documentaries, which have received three BAFTA nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebekah Vardy</span> Media personality (born 1982)

Rebekah Vardy is an English media personality who is married to English footballer Jamie Vardy. She was a contestant on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2017 and on Dancing on Ice in 2021. In 2022, she lost a well-publicised libel case against Coleen Rooney, dubbed the "Wagatha Christie" trial. It was determined that Vardy did play a role in leaking fabricated stories about Rooney to The Sun, a British tabloid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wagatha Christie</span> English libel dispute in 2019–2022

Wagatha Christie is a popular name given to a dispute between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney, which culminated in a 2022 libel case in the English High Court, Vardy v Rooney.

Andrew Hilary Caldecott KC is a British barrister and author.

Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama is a Channel 4 two-part courtroom drama based on the Wagatha Christie events and subsequent high-profile court case.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Celebrity lawyer David Sherborne: 'I regard myself as on the side of the angels'". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  2. 1 2 Adams, Tim (2022-05-14). "David Sherborne: the 'Wagatha Christie' star lawyer with a celebrity following". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  3. "University College School Hampstead London". UCS Hampstead. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  4. Board, The Bar Standards. "Barrister Details – Mr David Alexander Sherborne". www.barstandardsboard.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  5. "Calls to the Bar". The Independent. 1992-10-13. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
  6. Newkey-Burden, Chas; updated, The Week UK last (2022-05-18). "David Sherborne: the 'barrister to the stars' representing Prince Harry". theweek. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  7. "Media and Communications Law Specialists". 5RB Barristers. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
  8. Atkinson, Dan (2023-04-23). "Wagatha Christie™? My pun's been trademarked, but the joke is on me". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  9. Hyde, Marina (2022-05-13). "Like a phone dropped in the North Sea, Vardy v Rooney is full of absolute gold". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  10. 1 2 3 "Who is David Sherborne? Prince Harry's lawyer who also represented Princess Diana". Tatler. 2020-07-10. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  11. "David Alexander Sherborne > Chambers of Adrienne Page KC and Jane Phillips > London > England | Lawyer Profile". www.legal500.com. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  12. "Duke of Sussex arrives at High Court to give evidence in hacking trial". Borehamwood Times. 2023-06-06. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  13. "Leveson Inquiry: Did David Sherborne and Carine Patry Hoskins really". The Independent. 2013-04-22. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  14. "Complaint over alleged relationship between Leveson lawyers dismissed". The Guardian. Press Association. 2013-12-19. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  15. Gulati & Ors v MGN Ltd (un-redacted) [2015] EWHC 1482 (Ch), 21 May 2015, retrieved 2023-12-17
  16. Mount, Harry (2022-05-19). "Who is David Sherborne, libel lawyer to the stars?". The Spectator. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  17. Sparkes, Nathan (2023-12-15). "BREAKING: Prince Harry successful in phone hacking claims against Mirror – Hacked Off" . Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  18. Webster, Ben (2023-12-18). "Leveson lawyer Carine Patry Hoskins was paid £220k". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  19. Higginson, John (2013-06-04). "Leveson 'woman on left' is £220,000 fact checker". Metro. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
  20. "Prince Harry settles phone-hacking claim with Mirror group". BBC News. 2024-02-09. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  21. Foster, Rob Picheta, Caitlin Danaher, Max (2024-02-09). "Prince Harry gets 'substantial' payout in phone-hacking case against British tabloid, lawyer says | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved 2024-02-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. Topping, Alexandra (2024-02-09). "Prince Harry settles rest of Mirror Group phone-hacking claim". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  23. Baksi, Catherine (2023-12-25). "David Sherborne on his career and representing Prince Harry". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 2023-12-25.