Samuel Rowe - 5RB Barristers

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

Sam provides pre-publication advice to the Daily Mail, The Sunday Times, and various Reach titles, as well as pre-publication and pre-broadcast advice to the BBC.

Prior to joining 5RB, Sam was a researcher and co-author of the Independent Review of the Governance of Biometric Data and spent several years working in tech policy.

His recent work includes:

BBC & ors v Tickle & anor: acted for various media organisations in a successful appeal against a decision to grant anonymity to judges in historic proceedings relating to Sara Sharif (led by Adam Wolanski KC).
Tickle v Surrey County Council: acted unled in the High Court (Fam Div) for several media organisations against leading and junior counsel to obtain disclosure of historic documents and permission to publish information concerning historic proceedings relating to Sara Sharif’s siblings and half-siblings.
R v James McMurdock: instructed by The Times to obtain historic documents in criminal proceedings against James McMurdoch MP. See reporting here.
Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Greensill: acted 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.
Signature Medical Ltd v Samara and ors: acted 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: acted for D in a libel claim brought by Sir James Dyson (with Ben Gallop, led by Adrienne Page KC).
Davidoff v Hargrave: acted 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 from being interviewed by the media (assisting Greg Callus for C).

Publications

Sam contributed to the The Law of Privacy and The Media, published in November 2024.

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

24 Jan 2025

Contact

Email: clerks@5rb.com
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