Profile

Admitted to the bar in New York and also qualified to practice media law in the UK, Tony is a skilled attorney specializing in television, film, and music law. He is experienced in content review and compliance, contract drafting and negotiation. Tony has carried out US and UK legal work for many of our film, TV, and music clients including Showtime, All3Media, Lightbox, Red Box Films, Passion Pictures, Blast! Films, Firecracker Films, October Films, and Arrow Media, He has worked on projects for distributors such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Discovery, A+E, CNN, Channel 4 and the BBC. For example, he was production/clearance counsel for Sacha Baron Cohen's BORAT: SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM and WHO IS AMERICA?, as well as Netflix's TIGER KING 2. Since joining SmithDehn, Tony also has been developing our music client base. Tony regularly attends music, television, and film industry conferences and markets such as MIPCOM, Midem, AFM, NAPTE, and Realscreen. In addition to his impressive academic credentials mentioned below, Tony also has a wealth of business experience in the media field. For over a decade, Tony was a manager, contracts negotiator, and promoter at The Nerve Centre, Northern Ireland’s leading creative media arts organization, which serves more than 120,000 people per year with film and music events, and state-of-the-art production facilities. Tony has drafted and negotiated hundreds of contracts, and he has worked with major talent agencies, media companies, and film festivals. Tony received a first class, Honours Law Degree at Ireland's largest university, Ulster University, captained the University's team at the Jessup International Law competition, and completed an intensive media law course taught by the Chief Counsel of HBO, the Head of Legal for Channel 4, and leading members of SmithDehn LLP. Tony's law school dissertation was on the subject of “Harmonization and Expansion of Copyright within the Single European Market.” He also completed placements at multiple solicitors' offices in the UK. Tony also holds an honours degree from the University of Liverpool. In his free time, Tony enjoys travel (especially in Europe and the Far East), surfing, skiing, digital photography (he was the stills photographer for the Oscar-nominated film, "Dance, Lexie, Dance"), as well as literature, film, history, and politics.