Guildhall Chambers

Employment and discrimination; commercial: professional negligence and indemnity; costs litigation funding; technology and construction.

James is a commercial specialist with experience of dealing with a wide range of disputes within the County Court, High Court and Court of Appeal. He has a particular interest is cases that throw up novel or complex points of law and regularly deals with cases that straddle the divisions between his main practice areas.

James has twice appeared in the Supreme Court in Swynson Limited v Lowick Rose LLP [2017] UKSC 21 (professional negligence; assessment of damages) and Gavin Edmondson Solicitors Limited v Haven Insurance Co Limited [2018] UKSC 21 (costs; solicitor’s equitable lien). He is recommended in Chambers and Partner and the Legal 500 in the fields of Commercial Dispute Resolution, Professional Negligence, and Costs and Litigation Funding.

James has a broad commercial practice focussing primarily on banking and financial services, company/shareholder, partnership, professional negligence, supply of goods and services, and contractual disputes. James also has a keen interest in cases involving restraint of trade, breach of confidence and breaches of fidelity or fiduciary duty, and is regularly brought into cases that straddle his different practice areas such as claims following the sale/purchase of companies or the collapse of business relationships.  He also has experience of dealing with more esoteric commercial work such as intellectual property disputes (including passing off and trade mark infringement) and defamation claims brought by commercial organisations.

Most of James’ work is within the High Court and James has experience of acting as sole counsel in cases worth up to £20 million.  Recent work includes acting for the purchaser of a multi-million pound waste management business in a claim for misrepresentation against its former owners, representing a soft toy company facing a $4million claim for an alleged breach of an exclusive manufacturing agreement, and representing a financial advisor in restraint of trade proceedings following the sale of this IFA business to a national network.

ames has a strong interest in all areas of costs and litigation funding. In addition to dealing with more conventional inter partes costs disputes such as drafting pleadings and attending detailed assessment hearings, James has experience of providing generic advice on the enforceability of funding arrangements, and is regularly asked to advise on issues of coverage and indemnity relating to BTE and ATE insurance agreements.

There is a significant overlap between this area of James' practice and his wider commercial work. James is therefore ideally placed to advise on solicitor - own client disputes and professional negligence cases involving disputes around the advice given about funding arrangements and/or costs liability.

James has experience of wasted costs and non-party costs applications both in commercial (including applications for costs against directors of insolvent companies) and personal injury disputes. He also deals with disputes surrounding the costs of insolvency proceedings.