Sam Mitchell is a partner in Smith, Gambrell & Russell’s Chicago office. He represents companies, executives, private equity funds, investors, and institutional leaders in high-stakes commercial and employment disputes in federal and state courts and administrative agencies across the country. His practice spans restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation, complex fraud and business tort claims, senior executive and founder breakups, discrimination and retaliation defense, class and collective actions, and privacy litigation. He handles matters across a diverse range of industries—including healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, automotive, insurance, financial services, private equity, and real estate—for both plaintiffs and defendants. His experience on both sides gives him a strategic edge: he anticipates and counters opposing strategies before they take shape.

Sam has delivered results for his clients at every stage of litigation, from motions to dismiss through trial, appeal, and settlement. He won dismissal for a private equity fund group and its principals in Delaware Superior Court in a fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary duty, and conspiracy action arising from the acquisition of an insurance business. He secured a favorable settlement in the District of Delaware in a high-stakes breach of stock purchase agreement, fraudulent inducement, and trade secret misappropriation dispute. He has represented an automotive group in prosecuting fraud, trade secret misappropriation, tortious interference, and breach of contract claims against former employees who launched a competing business, achieving a favorable outcome in multi-district federal litigation. He obtained a judgment for an investment group enforcing contractual rights against a private equity counterparty in a failed transaction. In the Seventh Circuit, he successfully defended a tribal non-profit consortium against employment claims, securing affirmance of dismissal on sovereign immunity grounds.

Sam has particular depth in restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation. He secured a preliminary injunction in the Middle District of Florida enforcing non-compete and confidentiality agreements against a former senior executive who departed to a direct competitor, and obtained a temporary injunction in a trade secret and non-compete action against former employees who formed a competing business. He has obtained summary judgment enforcing non-compete covenants in the healthcare sector and has prosecuted and defended trade secret claims under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and many state analogues of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. At any given time, he is handling multiple restrictive covenant matters across jurisdictions.

Sam is equally formidable in employment litigation. He has obtained summary judgment defending employers against Title VII and ADA disability discrimination claims, religious discrimination and retaliation claims, and Dodd-Frank whistleblower retaliation and wrongful discharge claims. He won a published defense verdict in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals establishing that an employer’s verbal disclosure of an employee’s COVID-19 status does not violate Wisconsin’s patient health records confidentiality statute or privacy laws. He handles class and collective action litigation, including claims under the Biometric Information Privacy Act, the Genetic Information Privacy Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act,  including obtaining dismissal of a class action under GIPA brought against a Fortune 500 company. He has also defended employers in dozens of EEOC charges and state agency proceedings around the country, consistently achieving favorable outcomes.

Sam has tried cases to verdict and first-chaired many adversarial hearings in federal and state courts. He second-chaired a jury trial in a complex contract formation and restrictive covenant dispute and a personal injury defense trial that resulted in a favorable outcome. His experience handling cases from initial investigation through trial and appeal gives him perspective that shapes how he litigates from day one.

Sam is deeply engaged in artificial intelligence law. He has written and spoken extensively on AI liability for developers, deployers, and infrastructure providers; product liability and design defect theories as applied to AI systems; algorithmic bias in employment decisions; First Amendment questions arising from AI-generated content; and the protection of AI-driven innovation through trade secret law. He brings to these issues the perspective of a trial lawyer who has spent his career in complex commercial and employment disputes, and a command of the underlying technology that allows him to engage with AI systems at a level the legal landscape increasingly demands. Sam counsels companies on the governance and compliance challenges that accompany AI deployment, advising on defensible AI use policies, algorithmic bias risk management, contractual frameworks that allocate AI-related risk across developers and deployers, and governance programs built to withstand regulatory scrutiny and litigation stress-testing.

Before joining Smith, Gambrell & Russell, Sam was a partner at Husch Blackwell LLP, where he built a national practice representing both plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes commercial and employment disputes.

Outside of work, Sam is a passionate wine enthusiast and collector with a particular interest in exploring the world’s great wine regions firsthand. He and his wife share a love of world travel and exceptional culinary experiences. At home, he enjoys spending time with his wife, daughter, son, and their four-legged good boys — Gus the dog and Henry the cat — who have strong opinions about work-from-home days. He also follows politics, current events, and Notre Dame and Packers football with enthusiasm.