The Legal 500

Work Department

Commercial dispute resolution.

Position

James specialises in commercial litigation and all aspects of contentious corporate and personal insolvency. He is regularly involved in corporate and commercial disputes, including banking disputes, contractual disputes, restrictive covenants, warranty claims, and sale of goods; factoring and invoice discounting; enforcement of guarantees; professional negligence; commercial and corporate fraud, including misappropriation and concealment of assets and debt recovery. Contentious insolvency work includes bankruptcies and the realisation of assets, winding up petitions and the realisation of assets and misfeasance actions. Recent disputes in which James has been involved include advising an insolvency practitioner in respect of various misfeasance actions against the directors of a group of companies involving sums of approximately £3.8m; acting for a company facing a breach of contract claim of approximately £1.4m, but with a counterclaim valued at between £2m and £5m; a retention of title claim in respect of unpaid goods to the value of £260,000 following the administration of the client's customer; the collection of approximately £300,000 under the terms of a debenture; the enforcement of a personal guarantee in the sum of approximately £150,000 in favour of one of the UK's leading invoice discounting companies; an ICC arbitration against one of the world's largest oil companies involving sums in excess of US$6m; advising one of the country's leading high street banks on debt recovery and bankruptcy issues in respect of a prominent individual; advising one of the country's leading high street banks in relation to several claims involving sums of up to £500,000 in each case.

Career

Trained Donne Mileham & Haddock (now DMH Stallard LLP); qualified 1999; partner 2005.

Education

University of East Anglia (1996 LLB Hons).

Practice Areas

Litigation - banking; Litigation - commercial; Insolvency and corporate recovery