Dan Hoyle

Dan is a Partner and solicitor advocate in the firm’s litigation department. He is an experienced commercial litigator, who has acted for Presidents and asylum seekers, bankrupts and billionaires over the course of his career. Dan principally advises artists, managers, record labels and media companies.

Prior to joining Russells, Dan trained and practised for several years at one of the world’s pre-eminent disputes firms. There, he acted on some of the largest and most high profile cases around.

Dan has represented clients at all levels of the Court system, from tribunals through to the Supreme Court. He also has extensive experience of international arbitration and between 2011 and 2012 acted as Special Advisor to the Attorney General of Sierra Leone.

In recent years, Dan’s practice has increasingly focused on reputation and privacy issues and he leads the firm’s team in the long-running phone hacking litigation.

Dan’s excellent reputation is founded on his ability to quickly evaluate complex cases and the strength of the personal relationships he builds with his clients.

Case highlights:

• Leading the phone hacking team at Russells.  Dan has advised dozens of clients on their claims against both News Group Newspapers Ltd (publisher of The Sun and The News of the World) and MGN Ltd (publisher of The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and The People).  He has been instructed by sportsmen, actors, singers, models, music professionals and Estates.  Whilst many clients settle their claims anonymously, others have issued proceedings including Cheryl Tweedy, the Estate of Amy Winehouse, Nicola Roberts, Natalie Imbruglia and Ian Wright.  Dan has achieved successful settlements for his clients in every instance.
• Acting for a conglomerate of leading Premier League clubs in an intervention before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
• Acting for a well known UK rapper in privacy proceedings.  One of the major tabloids published an exclusive revealing our client on a romantic break with someone when it was not public knowledge that he was in a relationship.  Dan had the article taken down and worked to limit the damage to our client’s private life and reputation by ensuring the story was not re-published.
• Acting on one of the first disputes to be heard in the English Courts regarding NFTs.  Dan acts for the claimant, who has brought High Court proceedings against an NFT marketplace platform regarding the auction of Beeple’s NFT ‘Abundance’.
• Acting for bassist Pete Denton following his exit from The Kooks.
• Advising a well-known artist on his response to claims of domestic abuse made against him by a former partner.
• Advising a subsidiary of Warner Music Group on its defence to cross-border litigation brought against it by a foreign label.  Repeated claims were thrown out by the High Court and the label’s owner was eventually banned from bringing future proceedings as a vexatious litigant.
• Advising a fashion designer in defence of proceedings brought against him by the liquidators following the insolvency of his company.
• Advising labels and artists on a number of copyright infringement claims arising out of advertising campaigns.

“If kresman tek yu klos, yu nכ fכ rכn afta-ram yu nekεd wan. If yu du am, dεn go tek una tu as kresman dεn.

If a madman takes your clothes you shouldn’t run after him naked. If you do, people will think that both of you are mad.”

– Sierra Leonean proverb