Lawyers

James  Batten

James Batten

Appleby, Bermuda

Work Department

Dispute Resolution

Position

Senior Associate

Career

James is a Senior Associate within Appleby’s Dispute Resolution team.

James joined Appleby in 2021 and since then has worked primarily on insolvency and restructuring, corporate governance and general commercial litigation. James is an experienced advocate and litigator. Before moving to Bermuda, James practised as a Barrister from Chambers in London and appeared in many trials and applications before the High Court, County Court and Crown Court in England and Wales.

James has a particular interest in insolvency and restructuring, civil fraud, directors’ and shareholders’ disputes, corporate and regulatory matters.

Before entering private practice, James worked for the UK Business Department where he was responsible for developing anti-corruption policy and had conduct of proceedings against former directors of companies in liquidation who had defrauded creditors or committed other breaches of companies and insolvency legislation. In private practice, James continued to accept instructions from the Insolvency Service to prosecute delinquent directors in the Crown Court.

James was a drafting lawyer of the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016, a major overhaul of the insolvency regime in England and Wales. James worked part-time with the SFO from 2017 to 2018 as disclosure counsel on a large investigation into dishonesty offences stemming from rates fixing at a London-based bank.

Education

James holds an LLB degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Legal Skills from City Law School, where he was the recipient of an award for excellent results. James was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 2013. James was President of the Junior Bar Association at Inner Temple between 2014 and 2018 and remains a member of the Inn’s Bar Liaison Committee. James is an advocacy trainer for Inner Temple and has acted as group leader on a number of residential weekends and (more recently) remote training sessions for students.

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