23ES

Sam Clarke is a criminal and regulatory law barrister.

Crime

Sam acts for the prosecution and defence. He accepts instructions across the spectrum of criminal law and has acted as junior alone in cases including conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, causing grievous bodily harm with intent, a large conspiracy to commit robbery, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence, and offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Data Protection Act 2018.  Sam also has experience in protest cases, defending two people in trials for public nuisance that arose from the Insulate Britain protests at the port of Dover, and has defended a public figure for assaulting an emergency worker during a protest.  Sam has acted as disclosure junior in murder and historic sexual offence prosecutions.

Sam was recently seconded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Cayman Islands, where he prosecuted offences of serious violence, fraud, drugs and sexual offences.

Before commencing pupillage at 23ES, Sam worked on financial crime cases at two elite law firms, including state-wide corruption allegations in the UAE and a cum-ex trading investigation.

Environmental Law

Sam has considerable experience defending and advising on prosecutions and investigations by the Environment Agency. He was junior counsel in the largest prosecution ever brought by the Environment Agency, acting for the “linchpin” of an operation involving the illegal depositing of massive quantities of waste at an unregulated site in the Lincolnshire countryside.

Sam acted as standing counsel for a lithium-ion battery recycling company.  He is comfortable giving frank and pragmatic advice to senior executives and board members and has a sound commercial awareness of the waste industry.  He is deeply familiar with the End of Waste regime and has advised on all stages of End of Waste declaration, including self-declaration and preparing submissions to the definition of waste service.  He has worked closely with environmental permitting and chemical experts and was heavily involved in the company successfully obtaining a bespoke environmental permit as the solely instructed lawyer.  Sam has also advised on public law considerations on the international shipment of waste regime and appeared in legal challenges to enforcement action arising from the same.

Regulatory and other proceedings

Sam acted for a former senior civil servant in preparing a response to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments for allegations of acting in breach of a lobbying ban.

Sam has also been seconded to act for the Solicitors Regulatory Authority, advising on investigations and drafting formal accusations to be lodged with the Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal.

Before commencing pupillage, Sam spent three years working at the Infected Blood Inquiry, coordinating an investigation into one of the Inquiry’s key knowledge areas.

Positions, awards and memberships

Diplock Scholarship, Middle Temple

Certificate of Honour, Middle Temple

Advocacy Exhibitioner, BPP University Law School

Sam is a Middle Temple advocacy trainer and is also Direct Access qualified.

Publications

Case note: Municipio De Mariana & Ors v BHP Group Plc & Anor [2021] EWCA Civ 1156; Journal of Civil Litigation and Practice, Vol 10 Pt1, October 2021 (Thomson Reuters)