12th January 2024

Our 40th Anniversary partnership with social enterprise Creative Access kicked off in earnest yesterday, with the first cohort of thirteen mid to senior-level freelancers meeting up at our offices yesterday to launch the Thrive 2024 career development programme.

It was the first opportunity for the cohort to get together in person for a morning of introductions and speed meetings. The group included producers, scriptwriters, performers, editors and directors in theatre, creative media, journalism, publishing, film and television.

We couldn’t miss this fantastic opportunity to get to know the cohort ourselves, and we held a roundtable discussion about legal pointers with the support of senior lawyers in our Commercial, IP, Employment and Film & TV teams, Sam Goodman, Frania Cooper, James Baker and Anwen Griffiths. The live Q&A touched on protecting IP and the risks around copyright breaches across the different creative industries, as well as navigating the various contracts, disputes and business structures that freelancers need to deal with. The discussion was honest, lively and illustrated by plenty of cross-sector real life examples.

Creative Access seeks to improve the career opportunities in the creative industries for individuals at mid to senior-level from under-represented backgrounds. Lee & Thompson is delighted to be collaborating with Creative Access for the next 3 years. Read more here.

Bhavini Goyate, from Creative Access, says: “We had a brilliant first day at the Lee & Thompson offices to kick off our long term partnership. The team are warm, supportive and generous and I look forward to working with them closely to support mid-senior professionals in the creative economy. Huge thanks to the team for hosting us in their offices and making us feel so welcome, we can’t wait to come back!”