Michael Eaton is a Director of Edge Performance VCT and the doyen of music industry lawyers in the UK. He is also manager of Eric Clapton.

Michael Eaton is a qualified (non-practising) solicitor and was a partner at City law firm Stephenson Harwood. In 1977 he joined the Dick James Music Organisation where he was responsible for the legal and administrative aspects of its publishing, recording and management activities. In 1979, he formed Eaton & Co. (subsequently re-named Eaton & Burley), a firm of solicitors specialising in the music industry, and in 1990 he was a co-founder of Eatons, a leading music and entertainment law firm, with David Glick. In 2000, he founded MusicLore which has provided business, management and legal advice to some of the world’s leading recording and performing artists.

He has throughout his career acted for numerous highly successful popular music artists, including Eric Clapton, the Bee Gees, the Police, Enya and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, in negotiations with record companies, concert promoters and other entertainment entities in North America as well as Europe. He has also represented a number of successful businesses in the entertainment sector, such as Northern Songs, the Beatles’ music publishing company. More recently he has represented Eric Clapton in relation to his world-wide touring activities and was one of the main organisers of the Crossroads Guitar Festivals in Dallas in 2004 and in Chicago in 2007. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Bushbranch Limited, a music management company providing management services to Eric Clapton.