
Melanie Riley
About
Provided by Melanie Riley
Career
Bell Yard founder, Melanie Riley, has over 20 years’ experience in the field of legal, public affairs and corporate communications. Prior to setting up her own agency, she worked in the communications team at investment bank Nomura, Ludgate Communications and public affairs agency, Cicero.
Melanie has one of the longest track-records of any litigation PR practitioner in the UK and is well-regarded by solicitors and Counsel alike. She has worked on complex financial cases through to criminal matters involving deeply-affecting emotional circumstances. Over the years Melanie has helped guide HNW individuals, companies, law firms, financial institutions, charities, family-run businesses, celebrities and embattled employees through the challenging process of being in the public eye during times of dispute.
Melanie is trusted for her astute counsel and direct approach. She is unafraid to turn down assignments where she considers the objective unwise or undeliverable, however she is deeply passionate about those cases she does take on. With an innate understanding of the often conflicting demands of litigator and media, she excels at finding a middle ground.
Melanie has a special interest in extradition having spearheaded a UK-based campaign to highlight the inequality of the UK/US extradition regime.
Chambers Review
Litigation Support
Melanie Riley is a co-founder and director of Bell Yard Communications. She is instructed by corporate clients, law firms, barristers' chambers, charities and high net worth individuals in disputes ranging from white-collar crime to matrimonial matters.
Strengths
Provided by Chambers
"Melanie Riley is very personable and unflappable, which is needed for this job. She is incredibly knowledgeable. She knows all the courts and the system. Melanie is well connected and is my one-stop shop into that world of the courts and how to work through the system."
"She has probably the best book of journalist contacts of anybody in the business."
"Melanie Riley is very personable and unflappable, which is needed for this job. She is incredibly knowledgeable. She knows all the courts and the system. Melanie is well connected and is my one-stop shop into that world of the courts and how to work through the system."
"She has probably the best book of journalist contacts of anybody in the business."