27th January 2025

After a year of supporting the delivery of social enterprise Creative Access’ freelancer career development programme, Thrive, we welcomed back some of the Thrive cohort into our office to a wrap event for the first year of our three-year Creative Access partnership.

The partnership, set up on Lee & Thompson’s 40th anniversary, focuses on addressing the barriers to progression often faced by many mid to senior level individuals from under-represented groups within the creative sectors, through the funding of a wide-ranging training programme as well as in-house legal training and networking facilitation. Year 1 focused on freelancer creatives.

The wrap event included a Q&A for the freelancers led by music Partner Will Everitt, featuring Employment partner James Baker, Commercial partner Sam Goodman and Dispute Resolution associate Lucy Pether. This session explored the challenges of the commercial playing field for freelance creatives.

Some standout areas of discussion were:

• Board member obligations for a freelancer.
• Copyright and non-disclosure agreements – which battles freelancers should and shouldn’t pick.
• ‘Best Endeavours’ as an approach to content clearance, specifically in the context of a screenwriter’s concept and script.
• What counts and doesn’t count as defamation when considering life (or life story) rights – and the use of fiction and potential privacy landmines in scriptwriting.
• Ethical considerations around AI, image rights and the use of AI avatars in creative work based on the deceased.

Tinu Sodeinde, Career Support Programmes Manager at Creative Access, said: “The freelancers really appreciated the time and effort put into the discussion and gained a lot of insight.”

L&T Music partner Will Everitt also commented: “In the short time I have been the L&T ‘Link Partner’ for the Creative Access programme I have been bowled over by the brilliant, dynamic and committed class of young creatives. Despite the obvious pressures of working freelance in such a demanding industry, they seem determined and genuinely excited about the projects they are pursuing. There also seems to be great value in coming together and sharing the vision of the numerous activities they are involved in, and it has been heartening for us to contribute to that. The future of the creative industries is in good hands.”

In our commitment to take a hands-on role in supporting Creative Access, we held Year 1’s launch in January 2024, allowing the Thrive freelancer cohort to get together for the first time and we also welcomed a wider group of Creative Access delegates in November 2024 for a networking event at our office accompanied by the opportunity for  professional headshots taken by a photographer. 67% of attendees agreed that the networking event helped them to develop the confidence needed to progress their career in the creative industries, and 85% of attendees agreed that the event has helped them to feel inspired and optimistic about their career in the creative industries.

We look forward to launching the programme’s second year later this year. Watch this space!