James Phoenix

James is a Managing Associate in Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations, specialising in technology and business crime. James has extensive experience of global bribery and corruption investigations involving the US Department of Justice and the UK Serious Fraud Office.

James has advised multiple FTSE 250 companies on complex and reputation-critical bribery and corruption investigations on a global scale, often involving both the SFO and DOJ, along with other regulators and criminal authorities around the world. Having spent a year on secondment at the SFO investigating fraud and bribery and corruption cases, James is also able to leverage his unique perspective and insights from that experience to better advise his clients. In addition to his business crime experience, James is also a commercial litigator with experience in first instance, Competition Appeal Tribunal, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court proceedings.

James brings to his matters a deep interest in technology and the legal implications of technological developments. Whether it's managing the proliferation of data common to modern investigations or advising on privacy and cyber issues, blockchain/distributed ledger technology, technology intersects with every part of James’ practice.

Finally, diversity and inclusion is a topic that is very important to James. He is one of the diversity and inclusion champions within his department and frequently speaks at diversity and recruitment events about his experience of being a disabled law student and lawyer.

Work highlights

James’ recent matters include:

• Acting for Amec Foster Wheeler in relation to the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into bribery and corruption allegations, including its alleged dealings with Unaoil.
• Acting for a FTSE 250 financial services firm in respect of an internal investigation into bribery and corruption issues in Latin America, self-reporting and subsequent parallel investigations by the SFO, DOJ and FCA.
• Acting for a FTSE 100 company in respect of an SFO’s investigation into alleged bribery and corruption issues in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
• Acting for the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a UK Charity, in respect of ground-breaking charity litigation in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
• Acting for a leading payment scheme, in respect of the management of thousands of claims brought against it in respect of multilateral interchange fees that are alleged to be anti-competitive.