Samson Spanier

Counsel
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP

London T:+44 (20) 74445659

Samson Spanier

Financial institutions

Samson Spanier is a litigation and dispute resolution lawyer based in London. His practice focuses on commercial litigation and arbitration, banking and finance disputes, and restructuring and insolvency.

Samson is featured in three categories in the Legal 500 2025: banking litigation; corporate insolvency and restructuring; and civil fraud. For banking litigation, Samson is validated by four testimonials from clients, including ‘Responsive and commercial in outlook. Helped steer us through a very tricky dispute involving multiple challenges which could not have initially been foreseen. Guidance and support throughout have been super.' For corporate insolvency and restructuring, Samson is listed under Key Lawyers. For civil fraud, Samson is validated by this testimonial: ‘Provides an excellent and responsive service. One of Samson's key strengths is his ability to work collaboratively with other parties to achieve solutions.’

Samson advises on insolvency, restructuring (including pre-packs and restructuring plans), loans and syndicated lending, bonds and bond trusts, debt capital markets, derivatives, shareholders' agreements, share purchase agreements, commodities and trade finance, Islamic finance, sovereign debt and civil fraud.

Samson also advises on sanctions, crypto-assets / blockchain / distributed ledger technology, jurisdiction disputes and the conflict of laws.

Professional experience

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Education

Bar Professional Training Course, Inns of Court School of Law
Graduate Diploma in Law, City University, London
MA, History of Art, Courtauld Institute
BA, English Literature, University of Cambridge

Admissions

Barrister, qualified in England & Wales

Representative experience

Representing an SPV, the trustee of a US$650 million Islamic finance sukuk bond issuance, and a banking services company as its delegate, in global recovery proceedings. This long-running cross-border matter has involved two claims in the English High Court, including an application for trustee’s directions, as well as three sets of liquidation proceedings in the Middle East.
Representing an investment trust company as intervener in the leading authority on lawful act duress. The Supreme Court reviewed all relevant authorities and created a new test for lawful act duress.
Advising a lender in a complex structurally subordinated transaction on recoveries and on a pre-pack restructuring.
Advising the joint special administrators of a regulated firm put into special administration.
Representing the joint liquidators of a corporate group in litigation challenging rejection of proofs of debt.
Advising a commodities company on various factoring and trade finance agreements.
Advising on several applications by liquidators against third parties for delivery up of documents (acting both for and against office-holders).
Advising various companies on the civil law impact on various ISDA trades following sanctions legislation in 2022.
Advising a shareholder on rights under a shareholders' agreement.
Representing a bank in a claim against it for an injunction preventing the disposal of financial instruments, brought in aid of foreign proceedings under s.25 of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982.
Advising a major bank on the completion of bond trades under ICMA rules.
Advising a major bank on a distressed debt sale under Loan Market Association rules.
Acting for an investment trust as note trustee on its US$3 billion+ claim on a sovereign state’s eurobond default. The case raised many complex issues, including the capacity of a sovereign state to contract and the test under agency law to ascertain if a government minister has authority to act for a sovereign state. The case began in the High Court and subsequently was appealed to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
Advising a purchaser of a company's shares on rights under the share purchase agreement.
Advising a major bank on closing out derivatives transactions pursuant to an ISDA Master Agreement with an insolvent hedge fund.
Representing the sovereign state of Angola and its national bank in the recovery of US$500 million and a further €24.5m which they had paid to the defendants. Angola and the BNA commenced a claim alleging fraud, obtained a without notice worldwide freezing injunction and proprietary injunction against defendants located in the UK, Angola, Portugal and Japan, and successfully upheld the injunctions at the return date hearing. The case raises important issues regarding the duty of full and frank disclosure, jurisdiction disputes and the interaction with arbitration clauses, conflict of laws, the differences between, and respective advantages of, freezing injunctions and proprietary injunctions, and asset disclosure orders.
Advising a business on the establishment of a blockchain system for authenticating assets.
Representing a bank against a £40m plus interest rate hedging mis-selling claim brought by an English company and a Luxembourg company. The bank successfully struck out the mis-selling claim on the ground that it was time-barred. The case is a valuable guide to the workings of Section 14A of the Limitation Act 1980 and for confirmation that the way the claim is pleaded cannot change the date on which the limitation period expires.
Advising a major bank on its role as facility agent pursuant to a US$300 million loan facility.
Acting for the claimant in a dispute concerning an escrow account set up pursuant to a share purchase agreement that had been the subject of an arbitration. The judgment involves consideration of the test for an interim injunction in the financial services context.
Advising a counterparty to a Lehman Brothers entity over payment following the insolvency of the prominent banking conglomerate.
Acting for an investment bank in its US$285 million dispute with a metals trading company on aluminium and copper obligated 'repo' transactions (i.e. repurchase agreements) believed to be the subject of a third party fraud in the Chinese ports of Qingdao and Penglai. The case provides a notable insight into how ISDA master agreement language has been adapted for repo transactions. The case is of wider importance beyond financial services for its valuable guidance on how to construe contracts where some words appear to be repugnant to the rest, and on the defence of circuity of action.