James is a Senior Associate in the Disputes and Litigation team. He joined Burges Salmon in 2007 having trained and practiced at Charles Russell LLP in London. Prior to joining Burges Salmon, he also worked on secondment at the legal departments of Cable & Wireless and a major global recruitment company.
James is a commercial litigator with experience across a range of industry sectors. His practice has involved representing clients before a number of judicial bodies including the English High Court and Court of Appeal, Competition Appeal Tribunal, Court of Arbitration for Sport and various ad hoc arbitral tribunals and private disciplinary bodies. He is also experienced in the use of alternative dispute resolution processes including mediation and expert determination and is accredited as a mediation advocate by the Standing Council on Mediation Advocates.
James has particular specialist expertise in sports law having acted in a number of key cases in the field. His experience includes:
- acting for Cardiff City Transport Limited (t/a Cardiff Bus) in its successful defence of a £50M s.47A Competition Act 1998 claim by 2 Travel Group Plc.
- advising a major retail finance company on various disputes arising out of a share purchase agreement including claims for indemnification, breach of warranty and subsequent non-party costs order proceedings.
- acting for an aviation company in expert determination proceedings concerning breach of warranty claims.
- acting for various athletes in challenges to doping bans including Saudi Equestrian Olympic show jumpers Abdullah al Sharbatly and Khaled Al Eid and GB endurance rider Christine Yeoman in successful challenges to bans imposed by the Federation Equestre International and for Mariano Puerta in proceedings before the International Tennis Federation and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
- acting for the Horseracing Regulatory Authority (now the British Horseracing Authority) in the high profile Bradley and Fallon cases before the High Court and Court of Appeal.