Neil Sampson, a partner at Rosenblatt Solicitors, led the team that advised 1,000 ex-servicemen who took part in nuclear tests in the 1950s and have just won the right to sue the Government for compensation. The case is one of the biggest group actions to be brought in the UK.

What were the main challenges in this case, and the possible implications?

We acted for a group of 1,000 claimants, many of them elderly and in poor health, who did not have the resources to take on the British Government. Our challenge was to finance the case and obtain after-the-event (ATE) insurance with a potential cost measured in millions of pounds. We funded the case on a conditional fee agreement basis and arranged the largest ATE insurance policy with a self-insuring premium ever written in the UK. This meant our clients did not have to pay insurance in advance and costs were covered by the firm.

What was your worst day as a lawyer?

Eating a bowl of camel’s feet, a Chinese delicacy, with the guest of a Chinese provincial government. A not-to-be repeated experience!

What was your most memorable experience as a lawyer?

Memorable days are the occasions when the right result has been achieved against all odds. This case will be one.

Who has been the most influential person in your life and why?

Apart from Barbara, my wife, and my father, it is the QC Michael Beckman. He not only persuaded me to become a solicitor, but gave me the biggest break in my life when he recommended me as a defence lawyer in the Carrian fraud case in Hong Kong. Since then I have visited China about 200 times working as a commercial lawyer, and am now a director and treasurer of the China-Britain Business Council and chairman of the China Law Council.

Why did you become a lawyer?

I left school and worked for Horizon Holidays in the early 1970s but the company collapsed in 1974. I then started work in my late father’s law firm and was introduced to Michael, who along with my father showed me law could be fun.

What would your advice be to anyone wanting a career in law?

Think carefully about the route you take. Being a partner in a leading City law firm is not for everyone. Get some experience of life first — and if you are thinking of commercial work you should learn a language, probably Mandarin.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

If the work keeps piling in as a result of this case, I will still be at my desk in St Andrew Street. Or I could be in China finalising agreements for the supply of pet food to Europe (as I have done in the past). Who knows — but wherever I am I hope I still have my sense of humour.

l_tsang@hotmail.co.uk

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