Sam Eastwood
Contacts
London
+44 (0)20 7444 2694
sam.eastwood@nortonrose.com
Expertise
- Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
- Business ethics and anti-corruption
- Competition litigation
- Dispute resolution
- Financial institutions
- Regulatory and public law
Sam Eastwood is a dispute resolution lawyer based in London. He is experienced in handling a broad range of large commercial disputes for major corporations and financial institutions. He also heads our business ethics and anti-corruption group.
Sam's experience includes: pursuing and defending claims arising from significant corporate acquisitions; competition litigation; advising on joint venture and shareholder disputes; fraud investigation; seeking injunctive relief and the conduct of corporate investigations. Sam also advises on anti-corruption issues in connection with companies’ internal compliance policies and procedures, international business transactions and internal corporate investigations.
Sam is actively engaged in the litigation funding market working with both funders and brokers. His team’s work in the litigation funding field was “highly commended” by the FT in their FT Innovative Lawyer award (2007) - “an excellent if rare example of a firm opening up legal claims to normal market influences”.
His experience includes:
- Acting for Ranbaxy (UK) Limited, part of a large Indian pharmaceutical group, in connection with civil proceedings brought by the English, Scottish and Northern Irish Health Authorities and related criminal charges, in relation to the pricing and supply of certain drugs in the UK.
- Acting for Benedict Mackenzie, the liquidators of Stone & Rolls Limited, in relation to the high profile $100 million plus professional negligence claim against its former auditors. The action was one of the largest claims in the UK to be funded by a specialist litigation funding provider.
- Advising Komercni banka (one of the largest banks in the Czech Republic) on matters arising out of a $250 million fraud: Heading substantial internal investigation; assisting in due diligence related to sale of Czech Government’s majority stake in the Bank; and coordinating the Bank’s attempts to trace assets in several European jurisdictions.
- Advising and representing Kuwait Investment Authority in connection with the much publicised Grupo Torras litigation, resisting several third party applications and successfully defending a counterclaim brought by one of the defendants.
- Advising the Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) on dispute resolution procedures, regulatory and public law matters generally; specifically heading up the Norton Rose team which successfully defended high profile judicial review proceedings brought against the ORR by London & Continental Station Properties Limited (2002) and GNER in (2005).
Sam was short-listed for the 2009 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers innovative individual award. Sam is recognised in both the Legal 500 and Chambers Directories. Described as an “excellent operator, who cools down the most heated of discussions”, he “is principally lauded for proactively adhering to his clients’ needs” (Chambers 2008). He is “Recommended” by Practical Law Magazine - “a well regarded commercial litigator who has built a reputation handling complex cases, often with a cross-border element”, and identified by “The Lawyer” in their “Hot 100” awards (2008). Chambers UK 2010 states that Sam is held in considerable regard for his "skilled application of his general dispute resolution talents to contentious banking matters."
Sam is a qualified Solicitor Advocate and accredited Mediator.