People
Senior Associate
Sam primarily helps technology companies navigate lawsuits filed by consumers, including for privacy claims (CCPA, GDPR, and CIPA) and marketing claims (TCPA, Do Not Call, and CAN-SPAM). He also has deep experience representing financial sector companies and executives when they face claims by investors or former partners for breach of their fiduciary duties and contracts. Also important to his practice, Sam has successfully enforced tens of millions of dollars worth of domestic and international arbitration awards here in California.
The Daily Journal recognized Sam for a “Top Defense Verdict” in 2020 in helping secure dismissal with prejudice of a putative class action raising TCPA claims. The plaintiff there was seeking hundreds of millions of dollars, yet the case was dismissed entirely before Sam's client had to participate in any discovery. Through his strong writing, Sam has won a great deal of other cases in their early stages, including through Anti-SLAPP motion practice.
Sam also values his pro bono work, through which he has obtained an injunction to improve the conditions of detention in Border Patrol facilities in Arizona and won asylum for an indigent youth from Mexico. He has earned the Pro Bono Service Award every year he has been an attorney at King & Spalding.
In addition to obtaining trial victories, Sam routinely works with his client’s business teams to identify exposure they face and develop their privacy policies, terms of service, and marketing practices. As one example, he provided advice on marketing practices to a tech start-up, and several years later, that same start-up received a demand letter from a plaintiff that would have implicated hundreds of millions of dollars of liability had the company not incorporated his advice on marketing practices.
Sam graduated from Harvard Law School in 2015, where he was a research assistant for Professor Laurence Tribe and Co-President of the Harvard Mediation Program. He clerked for a federal district court and a federal circuit court before joining King & Spalding.
J.D., Harvard Law School
B.A., University of California-Los Angeles, summa cum laude with honors
California
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
Judicial Clerk, Honorable Bernice B. Donald, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Judicial Clerk, Honorable Sheryl H. Lipman, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
Spanish
September 12, 2022
Craig Carpenito, Dick Walker and Sam Cortina counsel Hudson Vegas Investment SP in a SPAC merger dispute with P3 Health Group
December 6, 2022
King & Spalding Secures Full Settlement of CFPB and NYAG Enforcement Proceedings for $1 Penalty
September 12, 2022
Craig Carpenito, Dick Walker and Sam Cortina counsel Hudson Vegas Investment SP in a SPAC merger dispute with P3 Health Group
December 6, 2022
King & Spalding Secures Full Settlement of CFPB and NYAG Enforcement Proceedings for $1 Penalty
September 12, 2022
Craig Carpenito, Dick Walker and Sam Cortina counsel Hudson Vegas Investment SP in a SPAC merger dispute with P3 Health Group
J.D., Harvard Law School
B.A., University of California-Los Angeles, summa cum laude with honors
California
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
Judicial Clerk, Honorable Bernice B. Donald, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Judicial Clerk, Honorable Sheryl H. Lipman, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
Spanish