James has a broad commercial, public and civil litigation practice in the UK and the Caribbean. He has appeared in the High Court and County Court of England and Wales, the Supreme Court of Barbados and is due to appear in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Before undertaking pupillage in Chambers, James trained and practised at commercial litigation firms in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. He was also a judicial assistant to Lady Justice Asplin in the English Court of Appeal.
His recent and ongoing cases include:
- Acting for a Barbadian public telecom company in an ongoing action brought by 300+ shareholders challenging the company’s amalgamation and privatisation as oppressive and in breach of takeover laws (as junior counsel).
- Acting for a property developer concerning an appeal soon before the Privy Council arising out of a high value contractual and fraud dispute in Antigua (as junior counsel).
- Advising a non-designated Swiss party in relation to a contract affected by the sanctions imposed on Russia (led by Richard Samuel).
- Acting on behalf of property owners in a judicial review before the Supreme Court of Barbados challenging planning permission to develop a large hotel (as junior counsel).
- Advised an investment brokerage firm concerning a Bermudan claim alleging the sale of US$100 million of bonds (led by Simon Davenport KC).
James has significant experience advising blockchain companies. His work has covered claims to recover cryptoassets, advising on a US$20m public sale, a token generation event, the first private and decentralised launch of a decentralised finance protocol, governance of a DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation), the issuance of privacy tokens by software developers, the enforceability of SAFTs (simple agreements for future tokens), regulatory requirements under the UK’s AML/CTF regime, and more.
As a holder of the Legal Education Certificate and a Barbadian citizen, James is entitled to be admitted to the Bars of several Caribbean countries to practise law generally (i.e. not for a particular case only). This gives him a rare advantage in terms of appearing before certain Caribbean courts as junior counsel. For example, James is entitled to be admitted in:
- Trinidad and Tobago;
- Jamaica;
- Antigua;
- Grenada;
- Saint Kitts and Nevis; and
- Saint Vincent.
