BBC’s litigation head moves on

BBC’s head of litigation Nadia Banno is leaving to join Baker & McKenzie just two years after taking up the head role at the BBC, according to The Lawyer.

The lawyer is joining the firm as of counsel after nine years at the BBC where she has taken lead roles in litigation and crisis management. During her time at the public sector broadcaster she won a high-profile judicial review of the Government decision to refuse an interview with terror detainee Babar Ahmad.  She was also central to achieving a battle for press freedom when the BBC became one of several broadcasters to successfully oppose an application to disclose footage to the police relating to the Dale Farm convictions.

The BBC is understood to be in the process of appointing a new litigation head, who reports into the head of editorial legal and has ten reportees.  Banno has worked for the BBC since 2005, when she became a data protection lawyer following three years as a media lawyer in Minter Ellison in Austalia. Between 2006 and 2012 she was a litigation and pre-publication lawyer before taking up the head of litigation role two years ago.