Creative Law & Business

Expertly taking care of the law & the business of creativity.

Meet The Team

Dean Marsh LLB

Dean Marsh is a highly experienced business advisor and very well-connected entertainment and media lawyer with over 30 years’ experience.

In 1996, Dean established his own, London-based solicitor’s practice, Dean Marsh & Co, which quickly grew and gained a formidable reputation among the great and good of the music industry. Prior to this, he gained valuable experience across many different legal areas, including as a corporate lawyer, fashion business legal practitioner and as a media litigator. This makes for an impressive combination of both a wide and deep legal knowledge, including an understanding of the machinations of the different industries that converge to form the creative sector.

He established Creative Law & Business in 2008 to provide an alternative to the traditional law firm. We are a pioneering specialist consultancy, providing both sound legal advice and informed commercial guidance, to creative talent and independent companies in the entertainment business, particularly music clients

Dean’s goal has always been to forge long term relationships with both creative talent and creative entrepreneurs. That the vast majority of Dean’s work comes from client recommendation is a reflection of this.

Personally, Dean has helped establish and develop many music-related businesses. He was the co-founder of the successful Guilty Pleasures entertainment brand and jointly established the pioneering disco re-edit label, OST Recordings. He was also a founding partner in the leading licensing consultancy, Sample Clearance Services. Dean is also the business manager for a number of successful music artists.

Dean was visiting lecturer in Law at Bucks New University and frequently speaks and moderates panels at music industry conferences. He can also be heard on BBC Radio 5 live as a copyright and music business correspondent.

About Us

Creative Law & Business: specialising in creativity

 
Creative Law & Business is unique. It was formed in 2008 by Dean Marsh specifically to provide informed advice and professional services to creative talent and those businesses with creativity at their core.  
 
Dean, a qualified solicitor, is a specialist legal and business affairs adviser. He is extremely experienced, very well-connected and has an unrivalled depth and breadth of knowledge across the spectrum of the creative industries. 
 
Dean and his associates manage our clients’ business and legal needs in the complex and fast-changing world of entertainment, media and art, and, most particularly, the music business. Dean’s knowledge and expertise also extends to other creative sectors such as digital media, TV, film, photography, art and design, literature, fashion, new technology/innovation and to live events.

Our head office is in the UK in the creative hub of Brighton, but we also have a secondary office in Dublin, an important territory for creative and technology businesses and with a thriving music industry and unfettered access to EU markets. Dean has dual British and Irish citizenship.
 

Legal and Business Advice

 
Creative Law & Business provides the legal services of a specialist law firm. But in addition we can also take care of the business side of any transaction. As part of the service we provide insightful advice to help our clients' structure their dealings in a business-savvy way.   
 
We take a commercial and strategic view of our clients’ businesses and have a tangible interest in helping them fulfil their goals. We are always looking to identify new business opportunities for our clients. 
 
You can be assured that CL&B understands creative people and the sectors in which they operate. Our experience makes us adept at dealing with sensitive issues that can often arise when commerce meets art. 
 

Simple clear contracts: straight advice; expert negotiators
 

We at CL&B are renowned as effective negotiators and deal makers who excel at drafting clear and concise contracts in plain English. We dispense refreshingly clear advice. We work efficiently, with a passion for what we do. 
 
Our ethos is to keep our clients’ dealings simple and fair and avoid unnecessary costly negotiations or disputes. 

Our negotiating skills will invariably deliver improvements in the commercial terms that are offered. 

We are problem solvers, providing creative solutions to a myriad of legal and business problems affecting creativity 
 

Our set-up

Ours is a specialist consultancy rather than a solicitors’ practice. Dean took the liberating step of leaving private practice, electing instead to operate as a specialist legal and business affairs adviser and management consultant. He remains a solicitor, but is "non practising"
 
By being self requlated we are able to avoid the unwarranted levels of bureaucracy that apply to solicitors' firms, none of which seemed to benefit the client. 
 
We also believe the consultancy structure of CL&B better reflects the true nature of the role that we fulfil: we are more than a law firm. 
 
We always represent our clients with integrity and professionalism. We voluntarily abide by the tenets of the professional Code of Conduct and in our T&Cs we contractually observe important responsibilities to ensure client confidentiality and to prevent acting where there is a potential conflict of interest. Click here for our terms and conditions.
 
At Creative Law & Business you can be sure you are in safe, experienced and professional hands. 


Nice things our clients say about us

it was a pleasure working with Dean. He understood the nature of a small business in the digital media industry and was quick and efficient in assisting us with creating a contract that suited the needs of our company!