March 2025 marked the start of an exciting new chapter for me at Glaisyers ETL — my first month in the legal profession! After a rewarding vacation scheme in Easter 2024, I couldn’t wait to return to Manchester and reconnect with the amazing team members I’d already begun to form strong working relationships with.
Having recently taken the Solicitors Qualifying Exams (SQE), I’m eager to dive into the real-world legal challenges that await. My first seat of my training contract has placed me in the Creative, Digital & Marketing (C, D&M) team, where I’m working alongside Partner Steve Kuncewicz and Solicitor Peter Pegasiou.
The C, D&M team handles everything from intellectual property rights to privacy and data protection laws, issues that are becoming ever more crucial in an increasingly digital world. As someone who’s always been passionate about the intersection of law and creativity, I’m really excited to dive deeper into these areas and help businesses navigate the challenges of the modern digital landscape. It’s a fantastic opportunity to develop both my legal expertise and understanding of the industries that drive innovation and creativity.
During my first month at Glaisyers ETL, I’ve had the chance to attend several valuable training sessions and networking events. One standout experience was a seminar and networking event with a local barrister’s chambers in Manchester, which allowed me to connect with professionals at different stages of their careers. It was an enriching experience that gave me a real insight into the varied paths within the legal world. I look forward to continuing to engage in such events throughout my training contract.
What have you learned so far in your role?
So far, I have been involved in various research and advice drafting tasks. This has developed my ability to collect information and present it appropriately to the intended audience, whether that be my colleagues or a client. Client’s require information to be precise and to the point. This is a skill that I have started to develop and will hopefully continue to improve on throughout my work.
In my current role, I have also been involved with checking the work of others for errors and improvements. Doing this, alongside receiving feedback, has taught me how to ensure work is accurate and efficient. An example of this has been reviewing contracts that we have made and making amendments to them.
As previously stated, there are many different aspects of law that the C, D&M team deal with. As a result of this, I have been able to learn about intellectual property rights, privacy and data protection laws, amongst other things. These are all areas that are particularly relevant in the current digital and social media age. I look forward to continuing learning about these laws and to apply them to the problems that we face today.
Which areas have particularly sparked your interest?
One of the areas that has sparked my interest is the UK GDPR and how it affects businesses within the creative and other industries.
Within the UK GDPR, the concepts of a ‘Data Controller’ and ‘Data Processor’ are used to determine the responsibilities of an organisation that processes (or performs any operation on) personal data. It is important that anybody who does this is aware of their responsibility to safeguard this data and provide the data subject with detail as to how it is used. This also brought my attention to Glaisyers ETL’s role within this system. We can help businesses understand their responsibilities and detail what should be put within their terms to reflect this to their clients.
Another area of interest that has arose during my time at Glaisyers ETL so far is image and privacy rights, particularly those relating to celebrities.
Throughout my research, I was surprised to find that there are no codified laws of privacy or image rights within the UK. Instead, an individual must use a ‘patchwork’ of statutory and common law clauses to protect their image rights. As a result, there is a potential for their rights to be used and exploited by other entities within the current system.
The importance of intellectual property rights and how they are protected and exploited is a significant area of law and business within and outside the creative sector worldwide. I have gained an interest in the area which will help me to assist the C, D&M team in helping clients with IP issues going forward.
