Compton Carr closes shop

West End eight-partner entertainment firm Compton Carr has broken up with half its partners going to Holborn practice Teacher Stern Selby and the others to Charles Russell.

Teachers gains three entertainment partners from Compton Carr on 1 May. However, the head of entertainment Brian Carr will join Charles Russell this week. The parting is described as “amicable”.

Catherine Fehler and Gordon Williams, specialists in media and entertainment litigation, along with Richard Laws, a specialist in non-contentious music and entertainment work, will join Teachers as partners . Philip Loveday, also from Compton Carr, will join as an assistant solicitor specialising in non-contentious commercial entertainment and copyright work.

Sarah Molander, a litigation partner at Compton Carr, will join the commercial litigation department at Teachers.

Simon Slater, marketing director at Charles Russell, confirmed that the firm had made an offer to all Compton Carr’s entertainment partners.

He said: “We understand that the other partners chose to join Teachers on the basis of Teachers wanting to concentrate mainly on the music side of the entertainment industry, whereas our vision is rather wider.

“Brain Carr is the name that draws the business in,” he added.

Slater said: “Compton Carr was a very attractive proposition. In an ideal world we would have loved to have had the whole team but at the end of the day lawyers have to do what they specifically want to do and that is the way it panned out.”

Commenting on its new partners, Roger Selby, managing partner at Teachers, said: “This is the most exciting development the practice has had for many years.

“We expect to take our place as one of the premier media and entertainment firms.”