"Michael James was born in 1953 and educated at Hertford Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he was an open scholar. After a commercial pupillage in the Temple, he worked for a shipowners' mutual insurer in London and Hong Kong, and then practised as a solicitor for ten years. He returned to the Bar in 1993, when he joined Enterprise Chambers, in Leeds and London. His practice covers all areas of commercial chancery litigation, with an emphasis on international disputes and commercial contracts. Recent heavyweight appearances include a four month commercial fraud trial, and a complex and high value agency dispute which occupied the Court of Appeal for three days. According to the Legal 500 he has a ""winning record in commercial litigation""."