Sam McAlister
The hardest conversations a senior leader will have are the ones the other side does not want to have. Reputational pressure makes those conversations rarer, more guarded, and more consequential. Most executives reach for process when what they need is the craft of persuasion under live scrutiny.
Sam McAlister is a former BBC Newsnight producer and trained criminal defence barrister who advises leaders on negotiation, persuasion and crisis communication when access, reputation and trust are on the line.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Sam McAlister
- She is the negotiator who landed the 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew on the Epstein scandal, after almost a year of patient access work with Buckingham Palace. Few speakers can teach reputational negotiation from inside a case at that altitude.
- She teaches negotiation as a Visiting Senior Fellow in Practice at the LSE Law School, which gives the methodology academic structure, not just war stories.
- Her book Scoops, published by Oneworld in 2022, was adapted as the Netflix film Scoop in 2024 with Billie Piper. The material has been stress-tested by film, television and law school audiences.
- Two careers, criminal defence at 25 Bedford Row and a decade as a Newsnight booker, mean her toolkit covers cross-examination, hostile interview preparation, and the negotiation tactics that actually work when the counterparty has every reason to walk away.
Biography highlights
- Visiting Senior Fellow in Practice, London School of Economics Law School, teaching negotiation.
- Former BBC Newsnight interviews producer for approximately ten years; left in 2021 after voluntary redundancy.
- Trained criminal defence barrister, 25 Bedford Row chambers, London.
- Author of Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews (Oneworld Publications, 2022).
- Subject of the 2024 Netflix film Scoop, portrayed by Billie Piper.
- Secured the 2019 BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew on the Epstein scandal; the programme received a 2020 BAFTA Television Award nomination for News Coverage.
Biography
The BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew aired in November 2019 and ended his public life. The booker who spent close to a year negotiating that access was Sam McAlister, then a producer on the programme and previously a criminal defence barrister at 25 Bedford Row.
That career sequence matters. Cross-examination teaches a particular discipline: prepare the question for the answer you actually want, do not flinch when the room shifts, do not concede the frame. Booker work at a national news programme adds a second discipline, the patient, repeated conversation with a reluctant counterparty who can leave the table at any moment.
McAlister now teaches that craft formally. She is a Visiting Senior Fellow in Practice at the LSE Law School, where her remit is negotiation. Her 2022 memoir Scoops, published by Oneworld, became the source material for the 2024 Netflix film Scoop, with Billie Piper in the lead. The Newsnight programme that anchors both was nominated at the 2020 BAFTA Television Awards in the News Coverage category.
What this gives a corporate audience is rare: a working method for the conversations leaders most often delegate or duck. How to keep a reluctant counterparty in dialogue. How to prepare for an interview where every answer is reputationally live. How a calm, prepared, well-briefed presence wins access that money and seniority cannot.
Key speaking topics
- High-stakes negotiation
- Crisis communication and reputational risk
- Persuasion and influence
- Media interviews and executive preparation
- Composure under public scrutiny
- Access and relationship-building with reluctant counterparties
Ideal for
- CEOs, board chairs and general counsel facing reputational scrutiny or media exposure
- Heads of corporate affairs, communications and investor relations
- Senior leaders preparing for hostile interviews, regulatory hearings or contested negotiations
- Women’s leadership programmes and executive development cohorts focused on persuasion under pressure
Audience outcomes
- A working frame for negotiating access and agreement when the counterparty has every reason to refuse.
- A practical method for preparing executives for high-pressure interviews, including the questions they hope no one asks.
- A read on what reputational risk looks like from the journalist’s side of the table, before it lands on yours.
- Tools for staying composed and on-message when the room turns adversarial.
Talks
A first-person account of the year-long negotiation that produced the most consequential broadcast interview of the decade.
Key takeaways:
- The mechanics of getting and keeping a reluctant counterparty at the table.
- How preparation, briefing and self-discipline shape what is actually possible in the room.
- What the interview reveals about reputational exposure at the most senior level.
A practitioner’s playbook drawn from criminal defence, BBC newsroom work and access negotiations with figures from Buckingham Palace to The White House.
Key takeaways:
- How to build leverage when you have no formal authority.
- How to keep dialogue alive across cultural, institutional and power asymmetries.
- The role of patience, framing and rapport in unlocking access.
Lessons from inside the newsroom for organisations under reputational pressure.
Key takeaways:
- How journalists actually decide what to pursue and what to drop.
- What composure and credibility look like under live scrutiny.
- How to brief a principal so they can hold the line without losing the room.