Harry Clark, Reed Smith media and entertainment lawyer, on working in the creative industries, AI and how trainees can think commercially
Aspiring solicitors are constantly told to develop their commercial awareness. Fewer are told what that actually looks like in practice. Harry Clark is a solicitor in Reed Smith’s media and entertainment team, having joined in early 2026. His practice focuses on commercial and regulatory matters for the media and entertainment industry, primarily working with clients in the video games and music sectors.
“There are probably two camps,” Clark says when asked what commercial awareness means to clients in these sectors: “generalised advice and ways of working that stand well for most lawyers practicing in the commercial, city, and corporate world, and advice specific to the creative sector.” On the general side, Clark shares a tip from a leading commercial partner, who told him that “some of the best juniors and trainees really start to think of themselves as owners of a business despite being relatively junior employees”.
In practice, that means looking beyond the immediate research task. Rather than stopping once the research is complete, junior lawyers should consider the facts behind the matter and how their findings can be turned into advice a client can act on. They should then take their thinking a step further. “Client A had this problem on this area of law that I researched; how would that differ if Client B came to me with the same idea, with their own risk appetite, or a different set of fact patterns driving their query?”
When it comes to sector-specific awareness, Clark believes being an avid consumer helps (he is a keen gamer himself). But the next step is understanding the business behind how these products are actually made. Asking what an engineering team would need to do to roll out a new feature, for example, and how long that process might take, means “you begin to contextualize your legal advice in a really useful way for in-house teams”. His personal interest in gaming also motivates him to keep up with developments in the industry. “If you can try to think through things from that perspective in addition to the expected lawyer way of working and problem solving, it does nothing but bring more value to the clients you advise.”
For students looking to understand how the games industry operates, Clark recommends US-based games journalist Jason Schreier. His book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is, Clark says, “an excellent guide to understanding the equal parts wizardry and chaos of how big-budget games get made behind the scenes”. He adds: “Peeling back the curtain through books like that is incredibly insightful, and I am constantly trying to learn myself how the magic actually happens.” Attending industry events is another useful approach. “The general advice of getting out to conferences and meeting people for coffee is a really good way to do it,” he says, as these conversations offer the chance to ask more personalised questions about how people in a given sector approach their work.
That depth of sector knowledge becomes particularly important in what Clark considers games law proper. He divides sector-specific legal advice into three broad categories. In the first, very general commercial queries could likely be provided by most practitioners. In the second, an answer can depend on industry practice and how other clients have approached similar challenges. The third covers laws and regulations that apply specifically to games. Loot boxes are one example. Clark describes them as an example of “a specific product mechanic existing predominantly, if not entirely, within games”, noting that numerous laws and pieces of guidance now target them expressly.
Age ratings are another example. Historically, PEGI ratings focused largely on the maturity of a game’s content, such as the presence of violence, swearing and drug use. Now, Clark explains, monetisation is becoming an increasingly important consideration. “A sports game that has been rated 3+ for the last 20 years could, under new rules applying to games released from June this year (or increasingly, older, ‘live-service’ titles), be rated PEGI 16+ simply for including certain monetization methods.” For a studio that has spent years developing a game and forecasting its commercial performance on the assumption of a 3+ rating, the implications could be significant. Clark describes this as a “huge change”.
Asked to identify the biggest commercial trends in gaming over the past five years, Clark starts with the most obvious. “The obvious and easy answer is generative AI,” he says, although the games industry faces a particularly complex set of considerations. AI is “seen simultaneously by some as a potentially massive tool for productivity, efficiency, and change to development processes, and at the same time by others as a risk from an IP subsistence and infringement perspective”. Even within the same studio, attitudes can differ sharply. For example, artists and writers may be more opposed to adoption, whilst product teams may be enthusiastic about the potential to bring games and new features to market more quickly.
The second major trend is funding and monetisation. Game prices have largely failed to keep pace with inflation compared to other competing forms of entertainment, despite soaring development costs. Clark points out that a newly released Super Nintendo game in the 1990s was priced at around the same price of a newly released, AAA game today, even though development and marketing costs have risen dramatically in real terms.
The third is regulation. Clark notes that the UK games industry has been worth more than the film, music and television sectors combined for some time and become increasingly culturally significant, prompting greater government interest from a policy-making perspective. At the same time, regulators are increasingly introducing rules that identify practices specific to gaming, rather than relying upon more generic principles. “So AI, funding/discoverability, and sector-specific regulation are probably good arguments as to what makes the top three.” For aspiring games lawyers, these are certainly trends worth watching.
Looking ahead, Clark expects emerging game-specific rules globally to dominate the industry’s agenda. To make matters more complex, not all of these developments are legally binding or in alignment, but rather offer an indication of where the obligations that games businesses could face in the next two or three years are heading. “It is more important than ever for businesses and their lawyers to think try and think proactively, keeping an ear to the ground and discussing trends with industry connections, to develop a gameplan before something becomes a binding obligation or compliance risk.”
So how can aspiring solicitors demonstrate this kind of commercial awareness in applications and interviews? Clark’s advice is to try and show understanding of a given development beyond the facts presented in that given context. Rather than simply describing a new policy, law or commercial development, candidates should consider how it might apply to a hypothetical client. If a client faced varying circumstances of A, B and C, what would the implications be? And how might the advice change if fact pattern B was different?
“In an interview context, if you can understand the decision trees, competing internal interests and judgement calls that in-house counsel are grappling with, and consider how advice can shift based on different variables in a fact pattern, that is an effective way to demonstrate how lawyers in private practice have to consider structuring their advice, before you are actually in the role.”
Finally, we ask what advice Clark would give his younger self. He laughs: “That’s a very good question!” Looking back, “I think it is better to be willing to ‘just try’ something early on, mess up, fail, and learn from it than not jump into an opportunity out of fear of getting it wrong or caring what others think. So long as you’re not entirely reckless and lean on colleagues’ expertise when you need it, being willing to give things a go and put yourself out there is what will help to develop your skills in the long run.”
Harry Clark will be speaking at ‘Commercial awareness: How to advise clients in a changing world — with Reed Smith’, a virtual event taking place on Thursday 22 October from 4pm to 6pm. Secure your place now.
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