Full-time arbitrator in independent practice, associate member of Six Pump Court Chambers, London.  Solicitor (England & Wales) (non-practising) and former avocat in Paris.  Expertise in shipping, commodities, energy.   

Party and institutional appointments in ad hoc and administered arbitrations with seats in London, Singapore, Copenhagen and Dubai.  Arbitrations in which James has made final awards have included disputes under time and voyage charters, MoAs for second-hand vessels, container leases, and bunker supply agreements.  

James specialised in maritime law upon qualification as a solicitor with Withers in 1990.  He spent four years in the firm’s Paris office, acting principally for French and Algerian shipowners and insurers and assisting London-based P&I clubs with litigation in French courts.  He studied French law, trained as an avocat and was admitted to the Paris bar in 1994.  On returning to London later that year, he joined Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) where he remained until 2008, continuing to specialise in shipping but acting increasingly for cargo interests, including trading houses and insurers, as well as for tour operators, charterers and liability insurers in the cruise and travel industries.

In 2008, James was appointed Registrar and Deputy Director General of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).  He headed up the LCIA’s casework secretariat and oversaw the administration of more than a thousand commercial arbitrations.  In the wake of the global financial crisis, these included substantial numbers of shipping and commodities cases.   He is a co-author of A Commentary on the LCIA Arbitration Rules 2014 (Sweet & Maxwell, 2015).

For two years (2012 – 2014) James was Senior Legal Advisor at Thomas Miller Legal, which offered due diligence and claims management services to commercial After The Event (ATE) insurers and litigation funders. Claims he assessed and managed included large commercial and investment arbitrations.

James spent a year (2015-2016) at Stephenson Harwood in its International Arbitration group, providing senior level assistance in large LCIA oil and gas arbitrations. 

Since 2016, James has been in independent practice as an arbitrator.  Between 2016 and 2022, he also worked part-time as a content provider for LexisNexis UK on Lexis®PSL Arbitration, a web-based practical guidance service. He joined Six Pump Court chambers as an Associate Member in 2019.  Between September 2021 and September 2022, James served as Honorary Secretary of the LMAA. He was appointed co-editor (arbitration) of Lloyd’s Maritime Law Newsletter in July 2022.