Chris Scott
Chris is the founder of Slateford and specialises in high-stakes legal strategy where law, reputation, and covert influence collide. His hallmark is investigative lawyering: uncovering the origin, mechanics and intent behind malign attacks on reputation, then executing strategies to neutralise problems and achieve client objectives.
For two decades, Chris has advised the most interesting people in business under pressure from regulatory scrutiny, disinformation and disputes. His work has frequently involved tracing bad actors behind leaks, smear campaigns or black PR and using the law to expose or dismantle them. He has pioneered Slateford’s redefinition of reputation law focussed on the causes and impacts of reputation harm, and challenged the limitations of legacy media law tactics.
His work at Slateford is recognised in countless awards for the firm and team, including nominations at The Lawyer Awards 2025 for both Specialist Law Firm and Boutique Disputes Firm of the Year, nomination for the Gold Award for Reputation Management Law Firm of the Year (Magic Circle Awards 2025, the firm also won it in 2023) and Crisis Law Firm of the Year (British Legal Awards 2022).
Examples of his work include:
- Pursuing wrongdoers behind a global political astrotufing and smear campaign against a prominent shipping entepreneur, philanthropist and sports club owner.
- Identifying and exposing an anti-competitive smear campaign against a Fortune 500 company planning major investment in London.
- Working with senior executives and investors on privacy issues caused by defensive tactics to their right to access markets.
- Aiding a FTSE 100 company facing business critical blackmail threats, and using tactical legal steps to thwart the execution of blackmail threats alongside law enforcement to enable the apprehension of wrongdoers, on more than one occasion.
- Advising the board of a California tech unicorn on issues around the conduct of a CEO founder and risk managing issues arising.
- Countering an anonymous online smear campaign masquerading as political journalism for a prominent European entrepreneur and business.
- A variety of work with individuals with central European connections to defeat false allegations of connections to sanctioned regimes, both in smear activity and carried through into compliance and due diligence checks.
- Work with a sovereign investor in sport and infrastructure around challenges to its operations in western markets.
- Working with a large listed commodities business on issues arising from its supply chain, ethical and stakeholder considerations in green energy transition.
- Aiding a prominent Asian group in litigation and issues arising out of “hack for hire” investigations in India.
- Leading an international team advising an individual involved in the 1MDB investigation on global legal and reputation strategy.
- Advising a leading cryptocurrency exchange in identifying reputation and regulatory risk and potential mitigation measures.
His earlier work, alongside colleagues at a previous firm, has influenced his approach to identifying the source of clients’ most serious problems, and includes
- Working with a large international family business in an M&A transaction to defeat an aggressive defensive strategy by a European company with strong state affiliations.
- Work with an international casino owner on wide ranging problems stemming from aggressive smear and market control tactics.
- Advising a prominent entrepreneur on proceedings related to a competitive market entry dispute.