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Davis Blank Furniss – the Manchester & Glossop based law firm – has appointed Rudi Kidd as a consultant solicitor specialising in Entertainment, Media, Sports and Intellectual Property law. His new role will see him grow the firm’s work within the music, film, television, sports, fashion and IT industries on both contentions and non-contentions matters.
Prior to joining Davis Blank Furniss, Rudi worked at IPS Law LLP where he represented Premier League and Championship football clubs and sports agents. His work included negotiating players’ image rights and representation agreements. He also advised Ryder Cup players, acted on football club acquisitions and advised on defamation & injunction applications.
Rudi qualified in 1994 and started his career at Daniels Solicitors in Macclesfield. In 1995 he moved to London and joined Searles Solicitors where he worked with high profile clients such as Seal, Moby, Portishead, Ash and Jamiroquai.
He returned to Manchester a year later and set up his own firm – Gray & Co – which boasted an enviable client list of household names including; Atomic Kitten, Lemn Sissay, Rae & Christian, Grand Central Records, Grand Central Music Publishing, Factory Records, 20/20 Vision Records and Fat City Records.
Rudi was a non-executive director/ contributor of “In the City” - the annual music conference in Manchester which was founded by the late Tony Wilson and his partner Yvette Livesey. He was also a managing director of Grand Central Music Publishing Limited from 1998 to 2013.
Gray & Co closed down in 2011 and Rudi then joined Kuit, Steinart Levy LLP where he worked as a consultant solicitor for two and a half years.
He is a member of The Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association, the USA-based lawyers group.
Rudi said of his appointment: “I’m really excited to be joining Davis Blank Furniss. It’s a well-established firm with a very good reputation. There’s a real drive to expand both the services it offers and the kinds of clients it works with. This was a big draw for me and really fits with my own ambitions. He added: I’m now looking forward to growing the firm’s presence in my specialist areas as well as adding value to our existing client base.”
Kate Oldfield – managing partner – added: “We’ve been thinking about ramping up or presence in the Entertainment, Media and Sports sectors for a while but we wanted to make sure we had the right talent in place. Rudi’s appointment is the first step in that process and we are all delighted that he is now part of the Davis Blank Furniss team.”
