Keystone Law media litigator Lawrence Abramson is advising The Get Real Marketing Company Limited on its case to challenge the refusal to provide the company with Cultural Recovery Funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Permission has now been granted to apply for judicial review to overturn the decision by the Art Council, who were instructed to distribute the £1.57 billion funding by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture Media and Sports in order to help cultural organisations to survive the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Arts Council refused to allocate funding to Get Real Marketing because the Culture Recovery Board was not satisfied that the company had exhausted all other sources of potential funding. This is believed to be the first judicial review challenging the inconsistencies with allocating the grants.

Get Real Marketing creates and curates events, operates venue space and facilitates opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people to connect per annum. It also supports the Arts Council’s Let’s Create goal of lifelong expression and creativity.

Lawrence Abramson said:

“It is never easy to overturn an initial refusal to grant permission to apply for judicial review on paper. This represents an excellent result for a client who finds itself in difficult financial circumstances through no fault of its own. Hopefully the Culture Recovery Board will now take on board the criticism of its process by the Judge and review its position before the matter goes to a full hearing.”

Sam Karim QC and Ifsa Mahmood of Kings Chambers have been instructed by Lawrence to represent Get Real Marketing.

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