Sam Willis is a highly regarded specialist criminal barrister with a busy practice focusing predominantly on serious and complex cases, including those involving organised crime, violence, firearms, drugs, and fraud.
He is instructed for both prosecution and defence, and has developed a reputation as an extremely smart, well-organised and conscientious advocate.
Sam places great emphasis on thorough preparation. He is skilled at processing large volumes of documentation and evidence, identifying the key issues in a case and finding ways to make complex information easily accessible to judges and juries. Formerly an IT developer, Sam is at ease conducting cases involving digital evidence and bringing technology-based evidence to life in the courtroom. He is experienced in cases with many moving parts, involving multiple defendants and lots of pieces of evidence.
Sam’s attention to detail and his capacity to build effective relationships quickly make him popular with colleagues and opponents alike.
Alongside his impressive case list, Sam has been instructed in several long-term projects, including the Post Office ‘Horizon’ disclosure review, an SFO disclosure review, and a secondment to one of the CPS Crown Court teams. He was a keynote speaker at the Cityforum Digital Forensics Summit, where he presented on the uses of digital forensic evidence in jury trials.
Sam is on the CPS General Crime, Serious Crime, and Fraud Panels at Level 3.
Outside of law, Sam is a keen skier, snowboarder, and scuba diver. He previously competed internationally for Great Britain in Canoe Marathon.
Sam is the author of ‘A Practical Guide to Digital Communications Evidence in Criminal Law’ – a textbook aimed at practitioners looking to understand the most common types of digital communications evidence used in criminal prosecutions. It can be purchased directly from the publisher or from Wildy. A sample chapter is available here. He has also been asked to present Webinars on digital evidence, specifically ‘Using Mobile Telephone Data‘ and ‘Call Data, Cell Sites, and Internet Records‘.
Sam also publishes a free weekly ‘updater’ of criminal law news – intended for practitioners, law students, and anyone with an interest in the criminal justice system of England and Wales. You can subscribe to Witness here.
Sam has published two mobile apps for criminal lawyers:
