James Johnson

James is a partner in our Corporate & Commercial team advising on commercial matters for a wide variety of clients. James joined the team as a partner in June 2014. Prior to joining Wilsons James was a partner at the City law firm Trowers & Hamlins which he joined in 2005 from Macfarlanes in London. James has also worked in-house at the accountancy firm Kingston Smith and the advertising and marketing group Omnicom.

James' work includes private company mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, investments and fundraisings, shareholder agreements, LLP and partnership arrangements and commercial contracts. He has extensive experience in a number of commercial sectors including consumer goods, motor vehicles, construction and aggregates extraction and also advises a number of professional partnerships.

Recent highlights

• Advising his clients on a number of major commercial contracts and projects including:
  • International supply agreements for the importation of cementitious materials;
  • International distribution agreements for both the importing and exporting of industrial goods;
  • Agency agreements in both the UK and for agents appointed overseas;
  • Commercial contracts for the supply of research services to a number of NHS trusts;
  • Various intellectual property matters including trade mark and copyright licences and assignments;
  • Data protection issues including data sharing agreements.
• Leading a number of major corporate transactions including:
  • the sale of a travel agency business;
  • the acquisition of a wholesale food supplier;
  • the acquisition of a major OEM supplier in the aviation industry;
  • several earn out and deferred consideration transactions for clients in the advertising and media sectors;
• Leading the team advising Kingston Smith on its successful alternative business structure licence application to the SRA. 

James was an author of the directors meetings chapter in the ICSA Guide to the Companies Act 2006, and presents at a number of seminars and workshops including Wilsons' Trustee Training event discussing trustee duties and managing legal risk, and Wilsons' annual military charity seminar.