Keeping abreast of the future
Lawyer and consultant Cliff Fluet keeps clients ahead of the technology evolution at Eleven Advisory
In the last year or so we have all become more comfortable with the concept of AI. Its benefits in our daily lives are increasingly evident, from maps and parking apps to experimenting with ChatGPT. And while we know that there is a much greater use for AI across the board, its potential dangers make it easy for us to try to ignore its rapid advancement.
But for some people, such as lawyer and consultant Cliff Fluet, the enormity of AI is exciting. For him it represents the biggest change since the invention of the printing press with the inevitability of fundamental societal change. “It’s evolution not revolution,” he says, and has dedicated the past 20 years of his career to immersing himself in its legal and contractual implications.
As Media and Entertainment partner at Lewis Silkin, he represents some of the biggest names in the business. He specialises in working with clients who are embracing content-based entertainment and technology for the first time such as FMCG and lifestyle brand owners, advertising agencies, digital agencies, investment funds and financial institutions. He has a passion for working on innovative new business models and in relation to the monetisation of rights.
Alongside his legal work, he is the founder and managing director of Eleven Advisory which enables and empowers businesses at the nexus of media, tech and digital to grow and succeed in a world increasingly driven by disruption and convergence. It is at Eleven as a consultant, albeit in a Lewis Silkin subsidiary, that he requires the regulation services offered by Sturgeon Ventures where he has been a client for the past 10 years. “Aside from the forms and the boxes we need to tick, Seonaid is very creative,” he says. “What’s great about her is there have been many business opportunities that have come our way and we have found with her that we can actually make them work, rather than saying no.”
Eleven Advisory, a trading name of 5CL Limited, became an Appointed Representative Firm on 4th August 2014. The relationship over the last decade has allowed the Eleven Advisory brand to make real headway in the market and become an established corporate finance offering.
“Being active in M&A in our sector but having the Sturgeon Ventures team alongside us has meant that we are always able to be in place for raising of assets or simply selling a stake within our company universe,” says Cliff. “The Appointed Representative Firm status allows us to be nimble across the cap table of any of our companies. Whilst buying or selling 100 per cent of a company is not a regulated activity, buying or selling a stake is regulated, as is issuing new shares.”
The Sturgeon Ventures team is always at hand for any pressing issues in a timely way, and we have benefitted from their professionalism and knowledge in the corporate finance sector, as well as their expansive regulatory knowledge.
Moving with the music
Cliff began his career as an inhouse lawyer in the music industry before joining Lewis Silkin. After working with major clients such as Blackberry, Apple and Nokia he moved on to streaming companies and disruptive technologies. He soon became particularly interested in ‘wild and whizzy’ businesses like AI and blockchain and immersive technologies, where clients have more need for strategic and commercial advice, rather than simply advising them on the law, not least, as he says, because the law tends to run 20 to 25 years behind any of the technologies. “If you’re positioned at the crux of change, you’re guaranteed a future,” he observes.
His business plan focused on the major forces coming into play in his specialist area of entertainment, namely AI, blockchain and immersive entertainment. Now the Eleven team are subject matter experts in the worlds of AI and creative technology. “For the world’s first generative AI company, I can tell you what the law currently says. I can give you an idea what the current law is likely to be, and I can give you an idea about how to build a framework in order to build a successful business that you can sell,” he says. “That is the kind of advice that we have given and continue to give when people are trying to understand an overall sectoral concept. We know our sector very, very well.”
His first client in 2013 was the world’s first AI generative music company which was sold to a small start up called Tik Tok. He has gone on to advise some of the world’s biggest broadcasters on what he describes as ‘the problem with Netflix’. “Some of the advice is strategic; some of it is corporate finance; it’s all essentially about adding value,” he says.
It also has a different charging model, ‘a crusade against the way we value output rather than input’, as he describes it. “I’ll often meet a Start-Up, and I’m wearing two hats. When it’s legal work they always ask how much, which actually means how little? Whereas for the advisory work, the question is always how do we pay you? And it’s a much more creative, confident and frankly non sclerotic conversation where you can find the upside.
“In America lawyers are seen as added value beyond the law. They often get share as they’re seen as business advisors. But in the UK people go to lawyers like they go to the dentist – late, slow and resenting every penny that they pay. Early in my foray of doing the advisory work, I met an investment fund who asked me find companies to invest in. They had always known where I was, but as a lawyer my work was seen as limited. Now I can do the grand plan and it’s much more about value than time.”
Hope is not a strategy
Back when offices used to exist, Cliff had an image on the wall of King Canute holding back the tide. For him it was a symbol of how his clients viewed the law. “But the law is not going to stop anything. All it can do is regulate,” he says. He draws an analogy with copyright law which emerged 250 years after the invention of the printing press.
“The printing press changed society forever – the power of the Church was smashed and the way we communicate was entirely transformed. This is how we have to understand AI today,” he says. “I often ask students if they have ever looked out the window on a plane and thought how slow the plane seems to be going. The irony is the faster you go, the slower it looks. That is what we are going through right now.
“And from ignorance comes fear. One of my theories is that when a business model or business mode is in danger of dying, people go through the stages of grief shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. I saw the music industry go through it and I’m seeing the film industry go through it right now. They are releasing more and more movies and hoping it’s going to work.
“The music industry has changed significantly. When I entered the music industry, the average person would buy two CDs – £24 a year. The average spend on music now is £180 a year. But now we have Spotify, Amazon Prime and much more. And there are completely new business models that I am growing and developing. In a world of ChatGPT where ChatGPT 5 is 4,000% faster, something has to change quite fundamentally so we need to be more open in our thinking and a lot less binary.
“It’s going to take some bravery, it’s going to take some thought, and it’s going to take people changing the way they think. It’s very exciting but like evolution, it’s brutal. If you’re naturally unselected you go. Holding your hand up and hoping this stuff goes away is crazy. Hope is not a strategy.”
Website: https://elevenadvisory.com/
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