St Philips Chambers

Regulatory Group

A leading practitioner with over 30 years’ experience, James Puzey is one of the most highly sought-after barristers in the fields of health and safety issues, inquests, environmental enforcement and tax. Across this unique mix of specialisms, James remains one of the most highly ranked practitioners in the country – by both Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners directories, and is instructed by some of the most noted and high-profile public and private organisations in the UK, for their most complex issues. He is a ‘go to’ barrister for the Health and Safety Executive, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), various local authorities and leading private businesses.

Clients and instructing solicitors regularly comment that James is ‘truly excellent’, that his ability to ‘miss nothing and be on top of everything’ is invaluable and that his ‘commitment to hard work’ coupled with his ‘extremely dependable’ nature means that they turn to him time and again. Given his leading status, profile and experience, James’s current practice almost exclusively concerns cases of the utmost complexity, consequence and severity. Over recent years, James has been in particularly high demand for cases involving significant reputational risks, where there is a risk to the public at large or where novel or precedent-setting issues are considered, whether in health and safety, inquests, environmental or tax law.

James’ practice is tri-jurisdictional and, as may be properly expected, James is a highly experienced appellate advocate. He is frequently instructed on judicial review matters, as well as cases in the Court of Appeal.

James has a rare double accreditation when it comes to work in his specialist areas. He was appointed as a member of the Attorney-General’s Panel of Prosecution Advocates in 1998 and has been an “A” panel member of its successor, the List of Specialist Regulatory Advocates in Health and Safety and Environmental Law, since 2012. In addition, James is on the “A” list of the Attorney-General’s Panel of Civil Counsel, having been a panel member since 1996.

Called 1990, Inner Temple.

A’ list of the List of Specialist Regulatory Advocates in Health and Safety and Environmental Law

‘A’ list for the Attorney-General’s Civil Panel of Counsel

Midland Circuit

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

Criminal Bar Association

Health and Safety Lawyers Association

Liverpool University (LLB Hons); Inns of Court School of Law (Bar Vocational Course).