Recognised by the definitive national and global directories as one of the Bar's leading commercial litigation juniors, Charles Samek has a wide-ranging commercial practice. He has considerable experience of commercial advocacy in all divisions of the High Court, both on interlocutory applications and at trial.

The 2008 edition of Chambers & Partners places him in the top 16 juniors at the Bar in commercial dispute resolution and comments as follows:

Littleton Chambers' Charles Samek is a "rare talent" whose arguments are always "well placed," observers report. Popular with solicitors, he has experience of commercial proceedings ranging from civil fraud, IP and entertainment-related claims to those founded on private international law and jurisdictional issues. His predilection for "categorical advice" is compared favourably by sources with the representations of others who sit on the fence.

With an international client base, his practice covers all the main areas of commercial law including sale of goods, media and entertainment, share and business sale agreements, employer / employee restrictive covenants, partnership, franchising, private international law and employment restrictive covenants. He is also regularly instructed for both claimants and defendants in multi-million pound / dollar civil fraud disputes involving deceit, restitutionary and tracing claims and accessory liability.

Charles appeared for the successful respondents in the landmark Court of Appeal Dadourian Group International Inc. V Simms & others (No. 1) [2006] 1 WLR 2499 case establishing the 'Dadourian Guidelines' for the extra-jurisdictional enforcement of worldwide freezing injunctions, in Dadourian (No. 2) [2007] 2 AER 329 concerned with the use to which evidence obtained under compulsion to police a freezing order may be put at trial and for the successful respondents in Crucial Music Corpn. v Klondyke Management AG (to be reported in the ICLR Business Law Reports) dealing for the first time with the applicability of Council Regulation 44/2001 ("the Judgments Regulation") to warranties of description for the sale of a classical music catalogue.

His current instructions include acting as sole counsel (i) for defendants in a multi-million pound fraud case brought by the National Grid for a 6-week trial next year, (ii) for the appellant in a 7-day Court of Appeal hearing challenging findings of deceit in an accounting fraud case, (iii) for a leading contemporary art gallery in a dispute with a competitor over the supply of contemporary art, (iv) for franchisors in disputes with franchisees and guarantors in the (doubtless related) fields of pizza supply and slimming treatments and (v) as sole counsel in various ongoing applications in the Dadourian litigation.

In July he completed a 5-day trial for an Iranian bank before Davis J, and he has just completed a 10-day £3 million fraud trial before Gray J involving alleged "ghost" activations of pre-paid telephone cards.

Charles was educated at St. Paul's School (1978 - 1982); Oriel College, Oxford University (1983 - 1987), the City University (1987 - 1988) and the Inns of Court School of Law (1988 - 1989). He holds a Masters degree from Oxford in Honour Mods and Greats and was awarded an Astbury Law Scholarship from Middle Temple.

Married to a former Italian lawyer and the father of two children, he is fluent in Italian and has an excellent knowledge of French. He is a member of COMBAR, the Chancery Bar Association, the London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association, the British Italian Law Association and the Athenaeum and Oriental Clubs.