BAPLA FOCUS 2024

Anna started her practice as a solicitor in the mergers & acquisitions at the international law firm of White & Case LLP. Over time she specialised in transactions involving IP assets leading her to focus on the protection of creativity.

In 2016, drawn back to private practice, Anna founded Open Plan Law with the ambition of offering innovative, engaged and collaborative legal services to creators of all kinds.

As legal relationships become increasingly complex in the globalised and tech-dominated economies, she firmly believes that those who treat legal advice as an indispensable element of their business will be at a competitive advantage.

She is a firm believer that legal services should be accessible, affordable and practical while delivered to the highest standards.

In 2018, Anna was shortlisted for the Law Society’s Excellence Award (Private Practice) and singled out for her contribution to the photography industry.

Anna is a photographic copyright expert on the British Copyright Council, and is a member of the Copyright Editorial Board at Lexis.

She is an Associate Lecturer in Media Law and Ethics at the University of the Arts (UAL) where, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Anna has led a journalistic student project on the impact of the coronavirus on human rights.

Anthony Misquitta is the General Counsel at the V&A and a Consultant Solicitor at Keystone Law specialising in IP and contracts. Anthony also lectures on art, IP and related subjects for the Institute of Art & Law and the London School of Economics (LSE). He is a trustee of the Association for Cultural Enterprises, the William Morris Gallery and the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art.

Corky is an independent Intellectual Property consultant, specialising in copyright licensing and third-party rights, with particular expertise around archive photo and film content, sports and music rights, and personality clearances.  He has over twenty-five years experience in the broadcast, commercial and corporate industries’ exploitation of copyright, from the point of view of both licensor and licensee.

Corky is also a writer, development producer, and educator, and a keen photographer.

James is a content licensing veteran having started his career back in the mid 1990’s in London and New York licensing stock photography into ad and design agencies. The arrival of royalty free discs saw James jump ship into the world of editorial, primarily celebrity, photography, heading up WireImage in Europe before going on to co-own two agencies. A short stint at the BBC and then a five year tenure at The Associated Press give him a solid background in video content creation, delivery and licensing.

Most recently James has been primarily consulting with content owners and CMO’s around their approaches to Sales Transformation projects and the challenges and potential opportunities around Gen AI.

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Reema Selhi is the Head of Policy and International at DACS, a non-profit organisation that manages artists’ copyright. She advocates on behalf of visual artists to champion their vital contribution to the UK’s creative industries, and on the importance of their intellectual property rights. She supports DACS’ policy and public affairs work including on the intersection of AI and copyright, campaigns to safeguard artists’ IP rights and the establishment of the APPG for visual arts. Reema regularly speaks on sustainable policies for artists in the UK and internationally.  

Reema is a UK-qualified lawyer. She is a Trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA); Board Director of a-n the Artist’s Information Company and Vice Chair at the Alliance for Intellectual Property. She holds a BA (Hons) from UCL and studied at Central St Martins, University of the Arts London.  

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Maria Than is a Viet-British-French creative technologist, educator, activist & co-founder of award-winning design company Ricebox Studio. Using augmented reality (AR), illustration, moving image and creative AI, she explores themes of fragmented identity, buddhism, mental health and escapism. She has exhibited in group shows in London, Paris, New York, Toronto and South Korea with screenings in Amsterdam and San Francisco.

In 2021, Maria became a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts, an award based on her period activism with Ricebox Studio and AR work. She lectures in digital and social design, ethics of AI and emerging technologies at various UAL campuses mainly at Central Saint Martins, Camberwell College of Arts and University of Greenwich, and is a Digital Designer at Child Rights International Network. Her film 'HOME AGE TO AVALOKITEŚVARA' is an Official Selection at +RAIN AI Film Festival 2024 in Barcelona during Sónar Festival.

Maria was previously a Resident Creative Technologist at AIxDesign during the Story & Code online residency and recently was winner and Resident Artist at arebyte Gallery’s Hotel Generation in London, UK where she launched her first solo exhibition in 2024 exploring her Vietnamese Buddhist heritage called 'Homage to Quan Âm'.

Carrie Kania is the Creative Director at Iconic Images, working with more than 40 different photographers and their archives and as an agent with C&W Agency, representing several writers. When her worlds collide, she edits books. Prior to London calling, she worked in bright lights, big city as a publisher in New York City. She has a dog named Foxy.

Image © Charles Moriarty

Zeynep Kubra Kavcar Penbegullu is a qualified Turkish lawyer, registered with the Istanbul Bar Association since 2017. She holds an LLB (2016) and an LLM in Private Law (2019) from Turkey. In 2019, she founded Pax Legal and Consultancy LTD, a legal and business consultancy firm based in London. She completed another LLM in International Commercial Law at the City, University of London, in 2020. Currently, she is a PhD student at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, supported by the Herchel Smith Scholarship.

Ruth Hoffmann is Global Licensing Director of Magnum Photos, leading teams across the agency to utilise and protect its incredible archive of both contemporary and historical work. She saw the rapid speed of change to digital, moving from filing transparencies at the Australian Picture Library to leading editorial at Corbis in Sydney, mainly focusing on the celebrity studio portraiture of the Outline collection. Ruth has now been at Magnum for over a decade, working with some of the world’s pre-eminent photographers and estates.

Inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019 in recognition of her contribution to Olympic film-making, Caroline is a highly respected creative leader whose company New Moon dominated the sports bidding and major events sector across 14 major Olympic, World Cup and other global sports events. Her films for the London 2012 Olympic Bid led her to being recognized as one of the 10 most influential people in securing the Games for London.

Caroline is Emmy-nominated for FIRST : The Official Film of the London 2012 Olympic Games and is the recipient of more than 100 production awards including Best International Documentary at the 2014 Moondance Film Festival Awards, Cannes Dolphins, New York Festivals and IVCA Awards.

Caroline was a producer on SEVE : Artist, Fighter, Legend for Rakuten and her other notable credits include co-producing We Are the People We’ve Been Waiting For with Lord Puttnam and Legends Live On, the recurring series featuring legendary Olympians for The Olympic Channel.

Caroline is British / Swiss and was educated in South Africa. She has twice been nominated as Entrepreneur of the Year in Britain,was awarded South African Woman in Business of the Year in 2013 and nominated as British South African Business Leader of the year in 2015. In 2016, Caroline was awarded the Distinguished Rhodian Award by her Alma Mater, Rhodes University.

In 2020 she founded the media technology business, egoli Media, an automated content management and sales platform for content creators and rights holders.

She is a former competitive swimmer, keen equestrienne and skier, fair-weather golfer and private pilot.

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Nick is a professional photographer, working on commissioned and personal projects, and a member of the Association of Photographers (AOP) team. He spent 6 years as a non-executive director of the AOP board, two years of which as Chair.

Nick has been involved with various working groups and committees concerned with copyright and photographers' rights at the AOP and other organisations. He is the business & legal adviser to AOP members on matters relating to professional practice, licensing, issues with copyright and infringements.

Carlo Irek is the former director of World Pictures, and has been CEO of 4Corners Images for over 17 years.

Having worked in the travel industry he subsequently migrated into the stock photo business, where he has worked for many years, founding 4Corners Images in 2004.Carlo has been a strong supporter of BAPLA and and a highly valued representative of the Association’s wider membership of bijou specialist photo agencies; Carlo is keen to promote and protect the common interests of all BAPLA members whatever their size.