James Pearce-Smith
Call 2002 (Inner Temple)
Qualifications MA (Cantab), Admitted as a Solicitor 1994
Professional Memberships Chancery Bar Association
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Areas of Practice
James Pearce-Smith specialises in commercial and chancery litigation. For the eight years prior to joining St John’s Chambers, James was a commercial litigation solicitor with two major law firms. His practice largely consisted of cases in the Mercantile Court and the Chancery Division of the High Court, and included a major HSE public inquiry. As well as acting for companies, directors, shareholders and partners in substantial commercial disputes, James had a particular specialism in professional negligence claims and had conduct of two of the claims in Nationwide Building Society v Balmer Radmore and related actions [1999] PNLR 606.
As a barrister James has continued to act and advise in commercial disputes and professional negligence claims, but has also developed his practice in other areas of chancery work.
Commercial Contract Disputes
- Building contract disputes
- Sale of goods and services
- Restraint of trade
- Commercial agency
- Joint venture agreements
- Credit hire agreements
- Sale of business / shares
- Franchise agreements
Company Law
- Shareholders’ disputes (including s.459 petitions)
- Directors’ duties and liabilities
Professional Negligence
- Solicitors
- Accountants
- Surveyors
- Banks and financial advisers
Partnership Disputes
- Commercial and professional partnerships
Banking
- Mortgages
- Fixed and floating charges
- Consumer credit and general debt recovery
Civil Fraud
- Freezing injunctions
- Tracing and other equitable remedies
Insolvency: Personal and Corporate
- Liquidations
- Administration
- Winding-up petitions
- Applications to restrain advertisement and presentation
- Bankruptcy petitions
Property Litigation
- Commercial and residential property litigation, including disputes over equitable interests, legal title, restrictive covenants, easements and boundaries.
- Undue influence
- Landlord & tenant disputes
- Leasehold enfranchisement
Trusts, Probate and Inheritance
- Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
- Validity of Wills
Recommendations
Chambers UK 2010
- Commercial Dispute Resolution: James Pearce-Smith has a broadly based commercial chancery practice, with a particular specialism in claimant professional negligence work. Sources say he is “very thorough, very personable and very good with clients.” He has a fast turnaround time and is “devastating in cross-examination.” Commentators note that his advocacy is “fluid, logical and coherent.”
Chambers UK 2009
- James Pearce-Smith handles a lot of commercial disputes work, and “uses his background as a solicitor to plug into the mindset of a great litigator.” He is also known for “impressing judges with his detailed, well-thought-out work on cases.”
Legal 500 2009
- is ‘reliable and incisive’.
