Niri Shanmuganathan

El Naschie v Macmillan Publishers Limited (trading as Nature Publishing Group) and another

The scientific journal Nature, and one of its journalists, in successfully defending a libel claim brought by the former Editor-in-Chief of another scientific journal. In her judgment, Mrs Justice Sharp found for Nature on all three of its pleaded defences (justification, honest comment and 'Reynolds' qualified privilege – a defence protecting responsible journalism on a matter of public interest).

Evening Standard

Successfully defending a claim by the owner who was the subject of an undercover investigation by the Evening Standard who claimed in a front page piece that some of the residents were being treated in a cruel and neglectful way. The Claimant was represented on a CFA and withdrew her claim shortly before trial. If the trial had gone ahead this would have been one of the biggest libel trials in recent years with 50 witnesses due to give evidence.

Blackmail case for a celebrity

Secured a final injunction in defamation, privacy and harassment for an anonymised client.“LJY” was sent a series of letters by an unknown blackmailer threatening to release false allegations of a serious criminal offence to the media if a substantial sum of money was not paid. This followed the team’s earlier successful application for an interim injunction on the same grounds, which was served on the blackmailer over a series of text messages sent from a blank Taylor Wessing SIM.