Twenty Essex

Arbitration and mediation; Banking and finance; Civil fraud; Commercial law; Energy and natural resources; Insolvency and company law; Insurance and reinsurance; Private international law; Shipping; Technology, media and telecoms

Sam specialises in complex, high-value commercial litigation and arbitration. His practice has a particular focus on civil fraud / asset recovery, technology, energy / environment, banking, company and international trade.

The legal directories rank Sam for ‘Commercial Litigation’, ‘Fraud: Civil’, ‘International Arbitration: Counsel’ and ‘Cryptocurrency’. He is one of the only junior barristers to be recommended as a Global Leader for Asset Recovery by Who’s Who Legal (2022). He is described in the directories as “miles ahead of his peers, and often his seniors; a great barrister to work with in all respects”; “one of the leading lights at the commercial bar in years to come”; “an excellent lawyer who shows great judgement and is very articulate”; “a rising star in the fintech space and digital space particularly”; and as having “outstanding abilities on difficult matters, with judgement well beyond his years”.

Sam has experience of substantial litigation before the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. He is regularly instructed (both led and unled) on interim applications such as freezing orders, search orders, prohibitory injunctions and Norwich Pharmacal/Bankers Trust relief. He acts in international arbitrations under a variety of rules (LCIA, ICC, SCC, LMAA etc.) as well as in English court proceedings in aid of arbitral proceedings and concerning the enforcement of arbitration awards. He has a particularly strong civil fraud practice, having acted in several multibillion dollar fraud claims over the last few years.

Sam is a co-opted member of the Service Sub-Committee of the Civil Procedure Rules Committee and recently worked on the October 2022 revisions to the gateways for service out of the jurisdiction. He is a founding member of both ‘ThoughtLeaders4 FIRE Starters’ (an industry group for fraud, insolvency and asset recovery practitioners) and ‘CFAAR’ (the first global network for professionals working in the crypto-fraud field), and he sits on the editorial committee of the ‘Tech Disputes Network’.

Sam has a particular expertise in disputes involving emerging technologies and cryptoassets. He has acted in several landmark cases concerning ransomware, cryptocurrency fraud and artificial intelligence. He is a co-author of The Law of Artificial Intelligence (Sweet and Maxwell, 2020), The Legal Statement on the Status of Cryptoassets and Smart Contracts (UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, 2019) and The Legal Statement on Digital Securities (UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, 2023). His expertise in this field was recently recognised when he was named as the youngest lawyer in Global Data Review’s “40 Under 40”.

Prior to joining Twenty Essex, Sam taught private international law as a Teaching Fellow on UCL’s Conflict of Laws course. He has previously worked at litigation boutique Kobre & Kim LLP.

https://www.twentyessex.com/people/sam-goodman/