Sarah West

For technology clients, Sarah's practice covers the full lifecycle of online and digital regulation, from policy development through to regulatory enforcement. Leveraging her experience as a senior lawyer at Google, she spends much of her time advising clients on the impact of content and consumer regulation, including the EU Digital Services Act, the AI Act, UK Online Safety Act, and the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act. This includes work on government consultations and policy development, compliance design and implementation, and defending clients against regulatory scrutiny and enforcement action.

More broadly, Sarah has extensive experience acting on high-stakes commercial and regulatory litigation, including class actions and follow-on damages claims, and in both the High Court and the Competition Appeal Tribunal. She attained Higher Rights of Audience to act as a solicitor-advocate in 2012.

Technology Regulation / Media

• Providing complex advice to a number of media, social and online platform clients, relating to intermediary liability and online regulation, including the DSA and OSA, and with extensive experience of various services, including search engines, ad networks, video-sharing platforms and file-sharing sites.
• Advising on various digital media issues, including notice and take down, defamation and reputation management.
• Advising on judicial review challenges arising from legislative frameworks and regulatory enforcement decisions.
• Leading on regulatory defence of content and consumer matters for a global tech company, including CMA (DMCCA), Ofcom (OSA) and EC (DSA).
• Advising on pre-publication and post-publication defamation matters for a multinational technology company.

Litigation

• Successfully defending a multi-billion pound misuse of private information class action in High Court and Court of Appeal on behalf of a global tech company.
• Acting on complex, high value litigation arising from corporate bankruptcy, involving international enforcement in multiple jurisdictions and successfully obtaining anti-suit relief in London and California.
• Defending UK and EU follow-on claims arising from an EU Commission decision finding abuse of dominance.
• Defending UK abuse of dominance class actions for a global tech company, and coordinating defence of related regulatory investigations (CMA, EC) and US litigation.
• Acting for a major motor manufacturer in connection with claims for breach of contract and negligent misstatement, which proceeded to a 10 week trial in the London High Court and an appeal in the Court of Appeal.