James Stephen

James is a senior corporate lawyer who takes a pragmatic and solutions-focussed approach when advising clients. 

He has over 25 years’ experience of advising on corporate legal matters including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, fundraisings, corporate reorganisations and general corporate advisory issues. 

James acts for clients of all sizes including public and private limited companies, LLPs, partnerships and entrepreneurs. His clients operate across a range of sectors.

Client feedback on James in the most recent Legal 500 Directory includes the following:

James Stephen is simply superb. Professional, thoughtful, considerate, caring. Incredibly hard working.

James Stephen. Experienced and confident advice. Work is accurate and well thought through with all facets of the deal covered. James is a calm and steady pair of hands to have on any deal team.

James Stephen…has excellent knowledge and brings a very pragmatic approach to getting deals done.

Recent transactions include the following:

• Advising the shareholders of Schoolblazer Limited on the sale of their business to an Australian listed company. Click here to read more. 
• Advising a corporate group on a significant and complex tax-driven pre-sale reorganisation with a very demanding timetable (with a group value in excess of £100 million).
• Advising the shareholders of a technology company on a partial sale of shares and parallel equity investment into their company.
• Advising the shareholders of Envirokey Limited on the sale of the entire issued share capital of that company to Reconomy. 

James achieved a Distinction in the Legal Practice Course and is a Power MBA Graduate (an MBA focussed on entrepreneurs).

James trained and worked in the City of London for the first 12 years of his career before moving to Cambridge to work with both larger companies and smaller owner-managed businesses.