Sam ONeill

Admissions

UK (England & Wales)

Services

TMT IP

Overview

Sam leads Linklaters' Middle East TMT/IP practice and specialises in advising clients on complex technology transactions and data protection matters.

He regularly advises government ministries, government and sovereign wealth-backed entities, data centre operators, fintech companies, frontier AI laboratories and leading multinational corporates on some of their most strategically important technology and data projects.

His technology work spans IT-related outsourcings and managed services, systems integrations, cloud computing, open-source software, hardware and software procurements and, increasingly, AI-related transactions and deployments. Alongside his transactional practice, Sam advises clients on AI governance, cybersecurity and data compliance issues across multiple jurisdictions, including the UK, EU, UAE, KSA, Qatar and the wider GCC region.

Sam also works closely with the firm’s Corporate practice on the technology, data protection and commercial issues associated with investments, acquisitions, divestments and joint ventures.

Experience

MTN Group: advising the largest mobile network operator in Africa on its strategic alliance agreement with Microsoft, which included a multi-million-dollar cloud migration project whereby the IT and networking workloads of more than twenty-one op-cos were migrated to Azure.*
Edaa: advising Edaa, Qatar's central securities depository, on its procurement and implementation of on-premises LSEG Markets Technology as part of its comprehensive end-to-end modernisation of Qatar's post-trade infrastructure.*
FinTech Investment Company: advising a fintech investment arm of a British multinational bank on the technology licensing and AI governance aspects of a corporate joint venture with a multinational IT services company to establish a provider of an AI-enabled digital lending platform in Africa.*
APAC-based Data Centre Operator: advising an APAC-based data centre operator on its strategic partnership arrangement with a PIF-owned company to build data centres in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.*
Trading Platform Operator: advising an electronic trading platform operator on outsourcing the hosting, operation, support and maintenance of its platform, and the licensing of the underlying technology for the platform to third party trading platforms.*
Advising a broad range of clients on data security and data protection compliance matters in respect of the UK GDPR, EU GDPR, KSA's Personal Data Protection Law, UAE’s Personal Data Protection Law, DIFC’s Data Protection Law and ADGM’s Data Protection Regulations, as well as the sectoral data protection rules and regulations that apply in the banking, healthcare and telecommunications sectors.
Technology Research Centre: advising a leading global technology research centre on a number of AI-related matters, including the procurement of training and development services for its LLMs; the terms on which the LLMs will be licensed for use; the risks associated with training AI models on copyrighted content and content containing personal data; and its template agreements for the procurement of training data.*
Emirati Conglomerate: advising an Emirati conglomerate on a multi-million-dollar cloud migration project whereby business-critical on-premises systems of multiple business divisions were replaced with new SAP cloud-based systems.*
Government: advising various government ministries and government-owned entities on the procurement of critical IT systems and related services, including the procurement and implementation of state-of-the-art systems to be used by government ministries to discharge their regulatory responsibilities.*
AI Research Centre: advising a leading AI research centre on the procurement of various technology-related products and services, as well as the commercialisation framework for technology assets developed by its research centres, including AI systems, navigation technology, autonomous vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.*
Data Hub: advising a digital data hub on the technology and data protection aspects of its joint venture with the ICT business of a leading GCC telecommunications service provider, including on complex data centre arrangements and critical IT projects (e.g., government-run IoT systems and government-focused IT systems/cloud services).*

* Denotes experience obtained prior to joining Linklaters

Beyond the Office

Sam regularly presents to clients on topics including AI, data protection and wider digital regulation and is recognised in the Legal 500 EMEA and Chambers Global guides as a leading practitioner for TMT in the UAE.

Education, Qualifications and Languages

Sam was educated at Millfield School. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (First Class Honours) from Leeds Beckett University and subsequently obtained a Distinction on the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at BPP University.

Experience

MTN Group: advising the largest mobile network operator in Africa on its strategic alliance agreement with Microsoft, which included a multi-million-dollar cloud migration project whereby the IT and networking workloads of more than twenty-one op-cos were migrated to Azure.*

Edaa: advising Edaa, Qatar's central securities depository, on its procurement and implementation of on-premises LSEG Markets Technology as part of its comprehensive end-to-end modernisation of Qatar's post-trade infrastructure.*

FinTech Investment Company: advising a fintech investment arm of a British multinational bank on the technology licensing and AI governance aspects of a corporate joint venture with a multinational IT services company to establish a provider of an AI-enabled digital lending platform in Africa.*

APAC-based Data Centre Operator: advising an APAC-based data centre operator on its strategic partnership arrangement with a PIF-owned company to build data centres in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.*

Trading Platform Operator: advising an electronic trading platform operator on outsourcing the hosting, operation, support and maintenance of its platform, and the licensing of the underlying technology for the platform to third party trading platforms.*

Advising a broad range of clients on data security and data protection compliance matters in respect of the UK GDPR, EU GDPR, KSA's Personal Data Protection Law, UAE’s Personal Data Protection Law, DIFC’s Data Protection Law and ADGM’s Data Protection Regulations, as well as the sectoral data protection rules and regulations that apply in the banking, healthcare and telecommunications sectors.

Technology Research Centre: advising a leading global technology research centre on a number of AI-related matters, including the procurement of training and development services for its LLMs; the terms on which the LLMs will be licensed for use; the risks associated with training AI models on copyrighted content and content containing personal data; and its template agreements for the procurement of training data.*

Emirati Conglomerate: advising an Emirati conglomerate on a multi-million-dollar cloud migration project whereby business-critical on-premises systems of multiple business divisions were replaced with new SAP cloud-based systems.*

Government: advising various government ministries and government-owned entities on the procurement of critical IT systems and related services, including the procurement and implementation of state-of-the-art systems to be used by government ministries to discharge their regulatory responsibilities.*

AI Research Centre: advising a leading AI research centre on the procurement of various technology-related products and services, as well as the commercialisation framework for technology assets developed by its research centres, including AI systems, navigation technology, autonomous vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.*

Data Hub: advising a digital data hub on the technology and data protection aspects of its joint venture with the ICT business of a leading GCC telecommunications service provider, including on complex data centre arrangements and critical IT projects (e.g., government-run IoT systems and government-focused IT systems/cloud services).*

* Denotes experience obtained prior to joining Linklaters

Samuel O'Neill

Admissions

Services

On This Page

Overview

Experience

Beyond the Office

Education, Qualifications and Languages

Overview

Experience

Beyond the Office

Education, Qualifications and Languages

Admissions

Services

On This Page

Overview

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Experience

​

Beyond the Office

​

Education, Qualifications and Languages

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Overview

Experience

Beyond the Office

Education, Qualifications and Languages