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Caroline Barnett
Director
Caroline is the co-founder of ArtsScape, having previously spent ten years as the General Counsel of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), where she created the legal function and worked as the company’s sole in-house lawyer.
Caroline advised the RSC at Board level on the full range of legal matters, including both subsidised theatre and in latter years commercial theatre, as the RSC’s production of Matilda the Musical opened in the West End and on Broadway. Her remit was very broad encompassing commercial contracts of all types, charity law issues, corporate governance, joint ventures, intellectual property and rights issues, as well as the negotiation of all types of contracts relating to the presentation, licensing and further exploitation of the RSC’s work on stage, screen and in digital media.
Caroline’s background is as an intellectual property specialist. Having studied at Oxford University, she trained at the law firm, Slaughter and May, and qualified there as a solicitor in 1995. She practised in the firm’s intellectual property department for four years, working on both commercial and litigation projects.
Prior to working for the RSC, Caroline’s first move in-house was to the global news and information group, Thomson Reuters. She worked as the company’s Principal Intellectual Property Counsel responsible for copyright, trade mark, brand protection, rights and advertising clearance issues, with a particular focus on advising the news gathering operation, including journalists, photographers and TV production.
Caroline has also served as a non-executive director of the Belgrade Theatre Coventry for 6 years.
Bernadette Thomas
Director
Bernadette studied law at Oxford University and qualified into the intellectual property department at Slaughter and May where she gained a solid background in intellectual property law.
Continuing in private practice, but wishing to gain more experience in the entertainment field, Bernadette joined Clintons where she advised a variety of theatre, music and film clients including EMI Music Publishing and Sacha Brooks on his productions of The Graduate.
Bernadette was appointed senior associate at Norton Rose where she worked on a number of high profile media transactions including the launch of Freeview and the acquisition by the IOC of Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympiad footage.
In 2003, Bernadette was offered an exciting and challenging role as head of business affairs at Poisson Rouge Pictures at the height of the sale and leaseback financing of films where she oversaw a slate of international co-productions. She also executive-produced several projects at Poisson Rouge including BIFA nominated The Hide.
Bernadette has consulted to adidas on its film activities and to the RSC on the World Shakespeare Festival and its Event Cinema business.
Bernadette is the co-founder of ArtsScape.
