Senior Advocate
MA (Hons), GDL

James regularly appears in the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal and has experience of all major areas of employment law, including unfair dismissal, redundancy, TUPE, unpaid wages, and discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation and age. He can take cases through every stage of the litigation process from drafting the pleadings, preparing bundles and producing witness statements to negotiation through ACAS and judicial mediation and representation at the tribunal itself. He is equally at home dealing with aggressive pre-hearing correspondence and with delicate settlement discussions.

James previously worked for the BBC as a researcher. He is highly skilled at legal research and specialises in cases that raise difficult points of law, particularly TUPE and disability discrimination. He is a current member of the management committee of the Free Representation Unit, a pro bono charity which provides representation at tribunals and is consulted by the government regarding employment law matters.

James has a Master of Arts in history from Cambridge University and he obtained a commendation in the Graduate Diploma in Law at BPP Law School. He has studied for an elective in immigration law as part of his Legal Practice Course and he is very experienced at dealing with cases involving immigration issues, such as whether an employee has no right to work in the United Kingdom and so cannot bring a claim.

Employers

James has undertaken both contentious and non-contentious work for employers. He frequently represents respondents at the Employment Tribunal, often in very high value cases and he has also prepared cases to be taken to tribunal by experienced barristers. He recently instructed Blackstone Chambers about a whisteblowing claim brought by an employee earning £150,000 a year, which was successfully defended.

Other cases include the successful striking out of a pregnancy discrimination claim where he was able to persuade the tribunal that the grievance letter produced by the Claimant at the hearing had not been sent and the defence of a satellite television channel against a claim of unfair dismissal and sex discrimination brought by a high-profile journalist. He is popular and well-regarded and has a strong relationship with a number of clients who have insisted that he manages all of their cases for them.

His non-contentious work includes the drafting of contracts, company handbooks and other policy documents and updating them to ensure that they keep up with rapid legal developments. He is skilled at negotiating exit packages for employees to prevent litigation advises on the tax treatment of tribunal awards and settlements.

Employees

James regularly represents claimants in the Employment Tribunal and he has also successfully settled many cases on behalf of employee clients. He advises clients in a wide range of circumstances, from those who have just been dismissed to those in the process of negotiating the terms of their contract, including restrictive covenants.

His notable Employment Appeal Tribunal cases include the following examples:

Tapere v South London & Maudsley NHS Trust [2009] IRLR 972 – on the effect of a TUPE transfer on a mobility clause when the transferee is based in another area

Okinedo v Northwest Guarding UKEAT/0510/07/LA – concerning the circumstances in which an application which is wrongly refused can be reopened later in the proceedings

Bourne v ECT Bus CIC UKEAT/0288/08/CEA – on the weight a tribunal must give to the findings of a joint expert in deciding whether a person is disabled under the DDA