Sam brings a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience to Michael Best. With more than two decades of experience spanning both in-house, government and private practice roles, Sam has cultivated a unique blend of skills in global privacy and data security counseling, investigations and labor and employment law.
Before joining Michael Best, Sam served in several roles at a leading provider of industrial automation and digital transformation technologies, including assistant general counsel, employment law, investigations counsel, and chief privacy officer. In his role as chief privacy officer, Sam led the global data privacy program to ensure compliance with privacy laws. This involved negotiating privacy terms in contracts, creating global training initiatives, and providing strategic counsel on processing employee and customer data.
Sam spearheaded successful GDPR compliance efforts and played a pivotal role in negotiating and securing approvals for the deployment of various monitoring software solutions, ensuring alignment with Works Councils’ mandates. He also partnered with global HR teams to conduct data privacy and risk assessments to ensure proper management of employee data.
His contributions have been widely acknowledged, earning invitations to share insights on navigating the legal challenges with implementing insider risk programs with Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.
Beyond his privacy and cybersecurity experience, Sam possesses deep knowledge in employment law. As the company’s assistant general counsel, employment law, Sam provided strategic guidance to HR and internal stakeholders on a spectrum of employment law matters, from accommodation requests to policy drafting and compliance with federal regulations such as FMLA, FLSA, ADA, and NLRA. Additionally, Sam specialized in the administration of the Company’s affirmative action and EEO compliance responsibilities.
Sam has led complex global investigations involving workplace misconduct, theft, fraud, and embezzlement. In a high-profile case, Sam’s investigation found that two executives had embezzled several million dollars through a kickback scheme involving a third-party vendor.