Samuel Rowe - 5RB Barristers

Sam joined 5RB in 2023 upon successful completion of third six pupillage. He accepts instructions across all areas of Chambers’ practice, including defamation, privacy, data protection and information law, and harassment.

His recent work includes:

R v James McMurdoch: instructed by Times Media Legal to obtain historic documents in criminal proceedings against James McMurdoch MP. See reporting here.
Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Greensill: acting unled in the High Court (Ch Div) for the Financial Times against leading and junior counsel in a novel application for pre-hearing access to an affidavit.
Acting unled in the High Court (Fam Div) for the BBC against leading and junior counsel in relation to reporting restrictions imposed in the proceedings concerning Sara Sharif’s siblings and half-siblings. See reporting here.
Signature Medical Ltd v Samara and ors: acting for the Ds in a libel claim brought by a cosmetic surgery company (with Ben Gallop). See reporting here.
Sir James Dyson v Mirror Group Newspapers: acting for D in a libel claim brought by Sir James Dyson (with Ben Gallop, led by Adrienne Page KC).
Davidoff v Hargrave: acting for D in a defamation claim brought by four claimants in respect of online publications (led by Adam Speker KC).
R (Alexander) v Secretary of State for Justice: successful judicial review of the decision to prevent a prisoner being interviewed by the media (assisting Greg Callus for C).

Sam also provides pre-publication advice to the Daily Mail, The Sunday Times and various publications published by Reach plc and pre-publication and pre-broadcast advice to the BBC.

Sam is a contributor to the 4th edition of The Law of Privacy and The Media.

During pupillage, Sam’s supervisors were David Hirst and Victoria Simon-Shore. Cases with which Sam assisted during pupillage included:

FKJ v RVT: strike out, summary judgment and reverse summary judgment applications in misuse of private information claim (assisting Adrienne Page KC and David Hirst for C).
R (the3million and Open Rights Group) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: judicial review of the amended immigration exemption in the Data Protection Act 2018 (assisting Aidan Eardley KC for D).
Hayden v Family Education Trust: summary judgment application prior to meaning determination in defamation claim (assisting Victoria Simon-Shore for D).

Sam is a member of the Middle Temple Hall Committee and a trustee of the Temple Church Trust.

Prior to 5RB

Prior to joining 5RB, Sam was a researcher and co-author of the Independent Review of the Governance of Biometric Data (The Ryder Review), commissioned by the Ada Lovelace Institute, which focussed on the legal framework for the processing and governance of biometric data in England and Wales. He also worked in the legal and policy team at a rapidly-growing digital identity company, advising on legal and policy issues, as well as representing the company to policymakers and lawmakers.

Sam’s Master’s thesis, undertaken at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, investigated the application of domestic communications offences to anti-vaccination disinformation. During his legal studies, he sat on Index on Censorship’s Youth Board.

Scholarships and Awards

Queen Mother Scholarship (Middle Temple, awarded for the GDL and BPTC)
Blackstone Exhibition (Middle Temple)
GDL Scholarship (City, University of London)
BPTC Scholarship (City, University of London)

Called

2021 Called to the Bar of England and Wales

Education

City, University of London: Bar Professional Training Course
City, University of London: Graduate Diploma in Law
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford: MSc Social Science of the Internet (Distinction)
University of East Anglia: BA American Literature with Creative Writing (Starred First)

Areas of work

Defamation and Malicious Falsehood
Privacy and Confidence
Data Protection and Information Law
Pre-publication Advice
Injunctive Relief
Reporting the Courts and Contempt
Media regulation

Memberships

Middle Temple

Featured cases

Davidoff & Ors v Hargrave

[2023] EWHC 1825 (KB) 21/07/2023

All cases

Privacy and Confidence

Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Alexander Greensill

[2024] EWHC 1803 (Ch) 10/10/2024

Reporting the Courts and Contempt

Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Alexander Greensill

[2024] EWHC 1803 (Ch) 10/10/2024

In 5RB News

10 Oct 2024

Contact

Email: clerks@5rb.com
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