James qualified in 1991 and became a partner at Lawrence Graham in 2000. He joined Payne Hicks Beach in 2006.

James specialises in trust and succession law, estate and tax planning, estate and trust variation, contentious trust issues, wills, heritage property taxation and the commercial use of trusts (such as the use of trusts in security transactions). His work ranges from the negotiation of complex heritage property taxation for landed estates to his role in 2004 on the commission assembled by an offshore jurisdiction to write its new trust law.

James's UK and non-UK clients include companies and financial institutions, individuals, charities, landed estates, trustees and protectors.

James writes and lectures extensively on trust law and is on the editorial board of the Italian edition of Trusts and Trustees.