John Davidson-Kelly

John is a Partner in Osborne Clarke's commercial team and focuses on media and technology agreements, ecommerce/consumer law, broadcast regulation, digital regulation and multi-jurisdictional compliance exercises. He also leads Osborne Clarke's Media + Entertainment group and Digital Regulation initiative.

John works with complex technology businesses and disruptive future facing services, helping to develop game-changing technologies and innovative business models, from complex platforms through to OTT services to global D2C services including ecommerce stores, video sharing platforms, social media services and interactive entertainment services.

John’s areas of expertise include:

• Digital Regulation: he advises clients on setting up, in life operation and even shutting down all types of digital platforms, including online marketplaces, online stores, music streaming platforms and video sharing services.
• Broadcast / OTT: he advises on all things to do with launching and running OTT services including distribution agreements, ecommerce matters and broadcast regulation. He also advises on traditional broadcaster matters including from launching TV Channels, to channel management agreements, to distribution arrangements, to broadcast regulation.
• Ecommerce: he advises clients on all sorts of consumer law and ecommerce issues.
• International: A large part of my work involves coordinating international compliance exercises across multiple jurisdictions.
• Commercial agreements: he advises on all shapes and sizes of media and technology agreements, from strategically important distribution deals to rights and content licensing agreements to tech services arrangements.

Before John joined Osborne Clarke, he spent 3 years as an in-house lawyer at YouView as Head of Legal, which he joined as an unincorporated start-up and saw through to product launch. Prior to that John worked at Olswang LLP and worked on secondment at Channel 4, the BBC and Microsoft.

Helping you succeed in tomorrow's world

I like working with clients to provide practical, useable and future-focussed advice. I also like to advise proactively – I don’t just advise clients on what is in front of us, I also keep an eye on the horizon and proactively advise on future facing issues.

An example in a regulatory sense is ensuring my clients know about impending regulatory change and are ahead of the game in terms of planning their implementation strategies across their products, for example in respect of the Consumer Omnibus Directive and Digital Content Directive.

With this in mind I have developed a Digital Regulation timeline to help businesses demystify the legal landscape and understand what is on the horizon.

Recommended for commercial, consumer law and broadcast regulation advice concerning social media, interactive content, digital media and e-commerce platforms. John's broad media practice also encompasses knowledge of content licensing, GDPR compliance and the implications of Brexit on the industry. John is incredibly responsive and can provide strategic and pragmatic advice. He is fantastic to work with.

Chambers and Partners