Gideon Benaim

Gideon specialises in reputation protection for high profile individuals and companies. He has extensive expertise in the areas of defamation, privacy, harassment and copyright. Gideon is a Partner and is the Head of Simkins' reputation protection team. He is ranked in Band 1 in Chambers & Partners UK and Chambers & Partners HNW and in The Legal 500's Hall of Fame.

Gideon represents a number of the world’s leading companies from sectors including financial services; energy; tech; food and drink; and television.

Gideon headed the team that acted for Sir Cliff Richard in his ground-breaking privacy case against the BBC, which Spears Wealth named as “Case of the Year”. Gideon has represented many high profile private and corporate clients including JK Rowling, Naomi Campbell, Gordon Ramsay, Roman Polanski, Las Vegas Sands Corp, and The Law Society.

Gideon received the prestigious award for “Partner of the Year” at the 2008 Lawyer Awards, was named The Times’ “Lawyer of the Week” in August 2018, and made it into The Lawyer’s Hot 100 list in 2019. In 2023 he was awarded “Lawyer of the Year (Reputation)” at the Spears Wealth Awards.

Gideon sat on the Law Society’s Reference Groups for Libel Reform and Privacy. He was on the Civil Justice Council’s Working Party on the draft Defamation Bill. He has given evidence to the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions, and has overseen the provision of evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and to several Parliamentary Committees. He has also spoken at the Cambridge and Durham Unions on the issue of reputation protection and the press. He presently sits on the Law Society’s Working Group regarding SLAPPs and is the inaugural Chairperson of the Society of Media Lawyers.