James spent the first nine years of his post-qualification legal career working as a general litigator in a high-street firm environment. As such, acting for a variety of clients, he gained experience across a wide range of different areas of law and expertise in litigation processes and procedures.

James joined Lester Aldridge in February 2019 to concentrate predominantly on acting for businesses in relation to commercial disputes.

James acts for business clients over a wide range of sectors in litigation matters. He has extensive experience of conducting litigation from the pre-action stages right through to trial. He will take a pragmatic and commercial approach to each case, mindful of the benefits of trying to settle where possible.

Recent examples of work or case studies:

• Acted for an overseas client in multi-track value sale of goods dispute involving court proceedings issued in England. This dispute involved issues concerning applicable law, and allegations that individuals responsible for placing orders were acting on behalf of a party other than the Defendant.
• Achieved settlement in a commercial dispute, in which the client was Defendant to a Part 8 Claim for a Declaration that invoices issued by it were not properly due. The settlement ended up being a tripartite settlement, involving a third party whom the client had threatened to join to the Proceedings on grounds it had induced the Claimant to breach its contract with the client.
• Acted for a client in multi-track value claim against the director of an insolvent company founded upon the tort of deceit. This dispute involved allegations that the client’s ability to recover certain plant from the liquidators had been compromised by the director having made pre-contract fraudulent misrepresentations to the client.