Coram Chambers

Children, human rights and international.

James has been a specialist family law barrister at Coram Chambers for more than 10 years working at all levels of Court up to the Court of Appeal, in the following areas of family law:

1. Care, placement and adoption proceedings on behalf of parents and children, and for local authorities, including appeals;

2. Family law cases with an international element, including child placement abroad and adoption with a foreign element;

3. private law disputes between carers in relation to child arrangements, including those raising issues of parental alienation and of non-accidental injury or other allegations of harm against a child and appeals; and special guardianship;

4. Private law disputes raising issues of removal of a child to Hague and non-Hague Convention countries;

5. Family law injunctions and enforcement;

6. Family law cases raising issues related to Court of Protection matters;

In the case of Re: S (A Child) [2017] EWCA Civ 249 (24 February 2017), an appeal brought by the mother of a young child following the making of a care order and an order authorising the child to be placed for adoption, Lord Justice McFarlane, giving the Judgment of the Court, stated that James had “conspicuously” represented the mother’s interests “both at trial and at appeal with great care, skill and insight.”

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2017/249.html

He has a particular interest in advising and representing individuals and families where there is an issue relating to children or adults with social, developmental or educational needs, especially Asperger’s syndrome or specific learning difficulties, and he was an accredited tribunal representative of IPSEA (the Independent Panel for Special Education Advice) from 2004 to 2007.

 

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James is a member of Coram Chambers, a leading family law chambers in the centre of London with a national reputation for excellence in advocacy and client care across all areas of family law.

 

Before he qualified as a barrister, James was a journalist. He worked as a foreign correspondent reporting from Africa and the Middle East for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He lived in Kenya for four years while covering sub-Saharan Africa (1991 – 1995), where he was injured. Afterwards he spent two years in Jerusalem and Amman to cover the Middle East, including Iraq. Later he moved to Beirut in order to report on Lebanon and Syria for The Financial Times.

Reasonably fluent French

Anglo-Australian Lawyers Society

BA Hons (Oxon) MA (Oxon) PGDL/ CPE (2000 – 2002) “Commended” BVC (2002-2004) “Very Competent”.