GameHorizon

Robert Bond

Games lawyer, Speechley Bircham

Robert will take part in the panel debate within the Business of games session.

With nearly 30 years' experience of acting for developers and publishers, Robert Bond has been described as "the grandfather of legal expertise" for the computer games industry.

Robert has at one time or another acted for most of the major publishers including Electronic Arts, Domark, Eidos, Ubisoft, GrandSlam, Bright Things, Focus Multimedia and Elite Systems. During his career he has negotiated for developers on the other side of Electronic Arts, Eidos, Namco, Activision, Take Two, Sony, Ocean Software, Infogrammes, 3DO, Sega and Nintendo.

Over the years he has acted for numerous developers including Core Design, Out of the Park Developments, Simis, Maxis, Merit Studios, Eutechnyx, Razorback, Crawfish and he is currently working for a number of games companies including the Second Life phenomenon, Zoe Mode and two Web 2.0 businesses to be launched in 2008.

Robert has been deeply involved with the industry having been the external lawyer to the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) at its creation, advising ELSPA on the legal issues relating to the games rating chart and the age rating programme. He has been a regular speaker at games events over the years including ELSPA conferences and E3.

Under Robert's leadership Speechly Bircham has developed a dedicated team to the computer games sector with a first rate practice in this field. Alex Carter-Silk, Mark Bailey, Nicholas Tall, James Castro-Edwards, Michelle Lewiston, Marcus Hughes, Samantha King and Claire McInnes all act for clients in the computer games sector.