AgentLaw - Meet the team

Steve Sidkin

Partner
slsidkin@foxwilliams.com
Telephone: 020-7614 2505
Fax: 020-7614 1405

Stephen is a founder partner of Fox Williams. From the earliest days of the firm, he has advised on distributorship and agency agreements and has been publicly recognised as a leading authority on this area of the law and, in particular, the Commercial Agents Regulations. He is head of the Commerce & Technology department of Fox Williams.

Recent cases involve:

advising on how principals can ringfence their exposure to agents
the wholesale restructuring of a network of European agents
advising on a claim for compensation from an agent who had retired

Stephen has written and spoken widely on agency and distributorship agreements in general, and commercial law issues, in particular. He is a regular commentator on radio (BBC Radio 5 Live - on which he broadcast most recently in January 2009 on The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations) and television where his appearances include Watchdog (going head to head with Anne Robinson), GMTV and Newsroom South-East. In addition, he keeps in touch with Kings College, London, from where he graduated with an honours degree in law before obtaining his masters in business law.

Stephen has for many years been a member of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA). At the 46th Congress in Sydney, in 2002 he spoke on the topics of protecting brands in international sale of goods and the law of distribution contracts. This was followed by the 2003 Congress in Lisbon at which he spoke on pre-contract negotiations. Since 2007 he has been President of the Contract Law Commission.

Prior to joining the UIA he was a long standing member of Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats (AIJA). In 1997 he addressed the 35th Congress of AIJA on the subject of "Protecting Data: European solutions to the use and abuse of data". He chaired the working session on the EUfs vertical restraints policy at the 37th Congress of AIJA in 1999. In 2001 he addressed the working sessions of each of the Distribution Law Sub-Commission and the Competition Law Commission at the 39th Congress.

Stephen has served for many years on the Commercial Law Sub-Committee of the London Law Society and is currently in his second term as its Deputy Chairman.

In 2006, Stephen became the business organisation editor of Business Law Review.

From a personal view

Over the years clients and partners have given Stephen the nicknames of "The Barracuda", "The Rottweiler" and ‚ すつぽん. But out of the office his wife, Lynne, and son, Samuel, regard him as a pussy cat. With their assistance he loves nothing better than to mess about on boats, whether on river, lake or sea. His greatest maritime adventure to date was to skipper a 4m open boat down the Grand Canal of Venice and into the Bacino di San Marco. When restricted to dry land he collects cartoons and is an avid student of brand marketing and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.