Year of Call: 2006
“Fearless and stands up to the judge.” “He is very impressive, bright and on top of everything.”
“Extremely personable and easy to work with.” “Clever, thoughtful and incisive, his reputation continues to grow.”
"An exceptionally bright rising star of the Chancery Bar”, James Mather won ‘Insolvency Junior of the Year’ at the prestigious Legal 500 Bar Awards 2018. His busy practice focuses on large-scale and complex litigation in the areas of insolvency, partnership and shareholder disputes; commercial fraud and asset recovery; and domestic and offshore trusts matters. Recent significant cases include two sets of proceedings arising out of the corrupt sale of Formula One, both of which featured in The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of the year; the leading Court of Appeal authorities on, respectively, the law of privilege in personal insolvency and the threshold test for obtaining security for costs; a Privy Council decision on a novel point of BVI company law; a Commercial Court decision on the scope of the court’s power to grant urgent injunctive relief in support of arbitration proceedings; and the first detailed consideration by the High Court of the procedural consequences of filing a late defence in the context of seeking default judgment.
Applications for the full range of commercial injunctions, whether in fraud, company or insolvency claims, are a central element of his practice. He has wide experience of seeking and defending novel forms of order to obtain information about wrongdoing and to locate and freeze assets. He has particular expertise concerning the issues posed by offshore structures for asset recovery and enforcement processes, as well as the interaction between civil and criminal proceedings. He is a member of the Serious Fraud Office’s panel of counsel for recovery of the proceeds of crime and was formerly standing junior counsel to the Department of Business in directors’ disqualification proceedings.
James is also “a superb, trusted counsel in partnership matters” and joint venture disputes. His experience extends to issues concerning shareholders of English and offshore companies, as well as members of LLPs and limited and traditional partnerships, in sectors encompassing financial services, property development and the full spectrum of professional services.
James was educated at the universities of Cambridge and Harvard and the Inns of Court School of Law. He is recognised as a leading junior in the legal directories, where in addition to his legal skills being described as “extremely strong across the board”, he is praised for being “responsive, incisive and user-friendly” and “a good team player” who is: “Incredibly easy to talk to and very accessible. If I need a question answered, he will get back to me, and when you’re involved in fast-paced litigation, that’s what you need.”
Serle Court Online Resolution features in The Global Legal Post
Serle Court’s Online Resolution service, set up by John Machell QC, Jennifer Haywood, and James Mather has been... Read More
Judgment in State Bank of India & Ors v Vijay Mallya [2020] EWHC 96 (Ch)
The judgment of Chief ICC Judge Briggs in State Bank of India & Ors v Vijay Mallya [2020] EWHC 96 (Ch) was... Read More
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge - MA in History (Double First)
Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (John F Kennedy Scholar)
City University, London - Postgraduate Diploma in Law (Distinction)
Inns of Court School of Law - Bar Vocational Course (Outstanding)
Serious Fraud Office Proceeds of Crime (B Panel) (2017)
Junior Counsel to the Crown (C Panel) (2011-16)
Junior Counsel to the Department of Business for Directors’ Disqualification hearings (2010-11)
Counsulting Editorial Board, LexisPSL Corporate
Contributing Editor, Butterworths Corporate Law Service
James appears on the BSB register as James David Mather
921736723
"Tricia Ronane, ex-wife of the Clash bass guitarist Paul Simon, loses bid to sell half of royalties" The Times, 22 March 2019
"The Clash’s manager loses fight to sell share of band royalties company set up after her divorce from Paul Simonon" NME, 21 March 2019
"SHE FOUGHT THE LAW & LOST - Wife of The Clash bassist Paul Simonon loses £5million divorce fight to be ‘free’ of the punk rocker" The Sun, 21 March 2019
"A decision with important implications for how companies handle wrongdoing" The Times, 5 July 2018
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