James O'Connell

James specialises in assisting businesses and anyone wanting to start a business. He is also our Head of Vineyards & Wineries team as well as specialising in crypto-currencies and block chain.

If you want assistance with any aspect of business life then James would be delighted to speak with you, for example:

• Starting and running your business
• Guidance on tricky shareholder/management questions
• Protecting your assets through contract, trademarks or copyright
• Handling employment issues
• Writing or reviewing a wide variety of commercial contracts
• Anything connected with crypto-currencies or block chain generally.

Qualified as a solicitor in both England/Wales and Hong Kong, James has practiced law internationally and, in the City, (where he trained as a solicitor, qualified in 1988 and later worked for a private equity house). Having created and sold several companies himself, he understands the commercial and practical realities of setting up and running a business.

James was made Partner with the firm in April 2021.

James has had a varied career: he founded the Institute of Paralegals; was the first lay member of the City of Westminster Council’s Standards Committee and helped establish an Equality and Human Rights Commission working group to promote diversity in the professions.

He has made numerous presentations, including to the Vietnamese government on anti-counterfeiting law and was a member of a Hong Kong government advisory panel. He has published many articles and edited an FT Law & Tax book on management.

James has been very active in legal education, having been an Adjunct Professor to Syracuse University’s law school, an Associate Professor of Law at City University in Hong Kong and a law tutor for ICE at the University of Cambridge.

When not working James likes to relax to the point where, on occasion, he seems to be half man, half sofa. This doesn’t happen too often as he has a young family and Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society to contend with.  

Specialisms:

• Business law
• Vineyards & Wineries 
• Crypto-currencies & block chain