James trained and qualified at Allen & Overy LLP, including undertaking a secondment at UBS and subsequently spent three years as an associate in the corporate M&A team.  In 2015 James joined the private equity and financial sponsors group at Travers Smith where he advised on complex cross-border M&A, private equity transactions and management equity arrangements. In 2019 James helped found a new transactional risk business and completed an MBA at Cambridge Judge Business School before joining Ryan Transactional Risk in August 2024.