Allen & Overy (A&O) is working with some of the biggest names in the music business as part of its work with longstanding pro bono client and homeless chairty Crisis.
The magic circle firm has negotiated contracts and exclusivity waivers for musicians Beth Ditto from The Gossip, Paul Weller and Bloc Party as part of Crisis’s new initiative ‘Consequences’.
In the same way that the children’s game Consequences gets each player to write a sentence of a story without seeing the sentence that came before it, Crisis asked the musicians to come in on separate days of the week to record different parts of a track, also called Consequences. None of the artists heard the previous contribution. The result will be a charity single released in the New Year.
A&O senior associate Jim Ford led a team of three corporate associates on the contracts work, with former head of indirect taxes Peter Mendham providing tax advice. The work required negotiations between several record labels.
The collaboration between A&O and Crisis, both of which are based in Spitalfields in East London, dates back seven years and A&O is the charity’s primary counsel.
