Regulator should investigate ‘shocking’ tactics by David Walliams’ lawyers

The Solicitors Regulation Authority should investigate law firm Schillings’ work for David Walliams, Good Law Project’s defamation lawyer has said.

After weeks of legal proceedings, and years of investigations, The Guardian and ITV News reported that David Walliams groomed 15-year-old fans and harassed young female colleagues. Walliams denies the claims.

In its article, The Guardian reported that Walliams’ solicitor wrote to a 19-year-old woman insisting that she provide a written undertaking – a legally binding promise – agreeing not to talk about her experience with Walliams. Schillings gave the woman only 24 hours to respond.

Walliams’ solicitor at Schillings was Jenny Afia. Afia previously represented Johnny Depp, whom the High Court in London found had been accurately described by The Sun as a “wife beater”.

In the letter to the teenager, Schillings also stated that “You are at a significant risk of committing a serious civil offence should you disclose, to the press or any other third party, private information or purported private information concerning our client.”

For Good Law Project’s defamation lawyer, Matthew Gill, Schillings’ characterisation of a breach of privacy as an “offence”, language which is most commonly used to describe criminal conduct, is “shocking”. Gill added that Schillings “ought to have known that a teenager would likely understand the word ‘offence’ to suggest she faced consequences similar to committing a crime, including imprisonment.” He called for the Solicitors Regulation Authority to investigate Schillings’ work for Walliams.

The Guardian reported that the young woman, unsurprisingly, did not have a lawyer – making the legal letter even more likely to intimidate her into silence.

In a survey commissioned by Good Law Project in October 2026, Deltapoll found that 71% of UK adults wouldn’t be able to afford a lawyer if they were targeted by legal action for speaking out on sexual violence. The same percentage also said that the law doesn’t do enough to protect women who speak out about sexual violence.

Gill explained that “Someone who is only 19 years old is unlikely to have received a legal threat before, let alone be able to instruct lawyers and get advice within 24 hours. Short deadlines like this are often imposed to silence people who have important stories to tell.”

Schillings told The Guardian that they had been instructed to write the letter as Walliams believed the woman was going to “sell her story”, which Walliams said was “an untruthful account”. 

At an awards show in 2004, Jonathan Ross used his opening monologue to make a joke at Walliams’ expense: “The comedy awards is 15 years old – 15 years old! And like most 15-year-olds, it’s drunk, it’s unpredictable and it’s probably going home with David Walliams.”

Walliams’ behaviour was well-known. But, when women tried to speak out, they were silenced by lawyers.

These tactics of intimidation are deeply harmful, but the law is inadequate to stop them and is failing to protect women. If we want to change that, we have to look to our lawmakers – it’s in parliament’s hands to ensure that women can no longer be silenced by rich and powerful men.