Andrew Forbes

Career

Andrew is the founder and owner of leading music firm Contentious Music. As his firm’s name suggests, he specialises exclusively in music dispute resolution and litigation.

He cut his teeth as a guitarist and songwriter in a first-wave punk band signed to a major label before qualifying as a lawyer, and has since become a veteran of the contentious side of the music industry. After qualifying and practising as a litigator at a major City law firm, he moved to the West End to specialize in media and entertainment disputes. He eventually established his own firm Forbes Anderson Free in 2001, which rapidly rose to the top tier of music law firm rankings for its focused expertise.

Andrew now handles a wide range of music dispute work for high profile artists, major and independent music publishers and record companies, managers and other music industry-related businesses and has led many very high profile reported cases. His background as an artist gives him an unrivalled depth of understanding of the issues involved in the business of music and the disputes which it generates. He is particularly expert in pursuing and defending copyright and contractual claims and is also heavily involved in the provision of pre-litigation advice, to help clients to position themselves at the earliest stages of development of contentious issues.

In addition to his practice at Contentious Music, Andrew is also a consultant at leading music firm Bray & Krais, where he has teamed up with Simon Goodbody (who he originally recruited at Forbes Anderson Free) to establish a high quality and industry-leading capability for the firm to advise on disputes across the full spectrum of media and entertainment-related issues.