Ian Penman

Ian Penman, one of the founding partners of New Media Law, is a solicitor with a breadth of experience across the media and entertainment sectors.

Ian advises a wide range of high profile clients within the music, television, film, computer games, software and publishing industries.

Ian provides specialist advice in areas such as intellectual property rights (including copyright, data protection, trade marks and domain names), licensing, distribution and production as well as mergers and acquisitions within the sector; and additionally provides commercial advice on other areas that are key to the client's business needs, such as corporate structuring, libel and slander, litigation and general commercial agreements.

Ian is also a founding consultant and shareholder of Synchtank - synchtank.com, the world leading professional music management system, which New Media Law helped found and incubated from the New Media Law office for the first 2 years of its development. Ian was a board director for the first 10 years of its operations.

Ian teaches Music Business Law on Tileyard Education’s MA Music Business course, and has done so since its inception in 2017. tileyardeducation.co.uk/tutors

Since 1995, Ian has also been a Visiting Principal Lecturer at the University of Westminster, and co-wrote their “Entertainment & Media Law” module on the LPC. In 2014 Ian founded New Media Law's "Media Law & Business Affairs" Diploma.

Ian is also a founding director and shareholder of Wild Immersion (see wilidimmersion.io), a Paris and London based VR content company, founded by Adrien Moisson and endorsed by Jane Goodall, that is focussed on educating people about wild animals in their natural habitats, by exhibiting the VR movies at managed attractions across the globe.

More recently, Ian formed a new TV Production Company, “Get Blitzed Ltd” with New York based film director Bruce Ashley and TV exec Andy Woodford. The company has just produced its first documentary (“BLITZED”), which tells the story of the Blitz Nighclub in London and the New Romantic scene of the early ‘80s. The film was first broadcast on Sky Arts in March 2021. See: GetBlitzed.co.uk The company is now working on a new music series featuring classic rock bands: Live from the Marquee

Ian was one of the co-founders of the new Music Networking Conference in Cannes, MiCannes, now in its 2nd year: MiCannes.com

In his spare time, Ian can be found driving his AC cobra to the local pub, captaining his Riva boat in the Cote d'Azur, or helping out as Chairman of a tiger charity: chinatigerrevival.org.uk

Footnote: in a past life, Ian was a keyboard player, appearing on many TV shows in the ‘80s. For those of you who are in need of some amusement, here’s the proof:

John Parr - Top Of The Pops and Wogan

Dan Hartman - Waiting To See You and I'm Only Foolin' Myself from Rock Around The Dock, Albert Dock, Liverpool and also on BBC1’s Wogan

Two People - This Is The Shirt and on Tyne Tees TV’s Razzmatazz