Profile description
Employment & Discrimination
James represents a wide variety of claimants and respondents in the Employment Tribunal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the High Court in employment disputes. He has advised and appeared for and against corporate clients and for individuals in litigation including British Airways, Barclays Bank, the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
James is an experienced advocate in:
- Unfair and wrongful dismissal claims
- Restrictive covenant claims
- Redundancy-related claims
- National Minimum Wage disputes
- TUPE (transfer of undertakings) disputes
- Unlawful wage deduction claims
- Tribunal jurisdiction and procedural disputes
- Discrimination and equality law claims under the Equality Act 2010
Notable cases include RSS Wessex (Rubicon People) v Dawson and others [2013] EWHC 2309 (QB), in which James obtained a High Court interim injunction in unusual circumstances against a former recruitment company manager believed to be competing with his former employer’s business via the use of LinkedIn networking contacts; Vaseer v Secretary of State for Health [2014] UKEAT/0096/14/DM in which James successfully appealed against the decision of an Employment Tribunal judge to allow a claimant to add an entirely new claim under TUPE Regulations 2006; Rawson v Robert Norman Associates [2014] UKEAT/0199/13/RN on the correct approach to determining liability and remedy in employer’s breach of contract claims in the Employment Tribunal; and Ségor v Goodrich Actuation Systems [2012] UKEAT/0145/11/DM in which James acted pro bono for a claimant previously working in the military technology industry, in an appeal determining the correct approach for tribunals to adopt where party seeks (or appears) to abandon a part of its claim.
James is a specialist advocate in the area of professional misconduct and discipline. James regularly acts as advocate in police misconduct tribunals (especially for the Ministry of Defence Police); as counsel for the Home Office in employer appeals under s.17 of the Immigration Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (illegal employment practices); and for the Immigration Services Commissioner in prosecuting immigration advisers operating illegally or providing unlawful services. James is also panel counsel for the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
James was instructed in two Court of Appeal matters concerning the correct interpretation of Part One of the Immigration Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, and one matter of police misconduct in Scotland involving an officer’s discriminatory conduct towards fellow police officers.
James has successfully advised and acted for individuals in various professions – among them, teaching and medicine – in professional conduct disputes between the individual and their employer or regulator.
James has acted for a number of banks, insurance firms, corporate and government clients and individuals in a range of civil disputes in the High Court and County Court. Parties for whom James has appeared regularly include the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Zurich Insurance. James has acted in litigation against the BBC, British Airways plc, Barclays Bank, the Ministry of Defence and numerous London borough councils.
James regularly accepts instructions in the following areas:
- Breach of contract
- Misrepresentation
- Commercial debt
- Breach of statutory duty
- Misuse of confidential information
- Interim injunctions
- Negligence actions
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ames’s practice focuses principally on judicial review challenges. As Attorney General’s B Panel of Counsel, James is frequently instructed by government agencies including the Home Office, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Justice in defending judicial review claims brought against them, as well as by private individuals seeking to challenge government decisions.
Cases in which James has been instructed include R(Hall) v Secretary of State for Defence [2016] EWHC (Admin), a challenge by a sailor to a Defence Council decision under the Armed Forces Act 2006 to uphold his administrative discharge; R (Wildbur) v Secretary of State for Defence [2016] EWHC (Admin), a judicial review by a former army captain of the lawfulness of a redundancy package offered to him; R (Huang) v Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills [2015] EWHC (Admin) on a challenge to the employability of aliens within the British civil service under the Aliens Employment Act 1955; and R (Rasool) v Tower Bridge Magistrates’ Court [2013] EWHC 4736 (Admin) in which James acted for a local borough in successfully resisting a challenge to the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 which imposes criminal and civil sanctions on food business operators. James also acted in 2015 for an NHS surgeon in his challenge to the NHS selection and appointment process for long-term surgical training positions.
In 2010, James was an avocat stagiaire in the UK Division of the European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg.
