James Potts

Practice Areas

James specialises in commercial litigation and arbitration, banking and financial services, civil fraud, sanctions and financial crime, cyber fraud and cryptoassets, company and shareholder disputes, energy, professional negligence, regulatory and professional disciplinary law, and commercial judicial review.

James has substantial experience of high-value, complex commercial litigation and arbitration. Much of his work is international, including recent cases in several Middle East jurisdictions, the Bahamas, Bermuda, BVI, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Cyprus, Guernsey and Jersey.

Recent highlights include advising various leading financial services and cryptoasset firms, and acting in Morina v Scherbakova (proving validity of a missing will for a large estate), Tugushev v Orlov and Roth (dispute over Russia’s largest fishing group), AXA SA v Genworth Financial International Holdings (£500+ million share purchase agreement dispute relating to PPI), Medsted Associates Ltd v Canaccord Genuity (claim concerning fiduciary duties of brokers), Medlands (PTC) Ltd v St John’s Trust Company (Pvt) Ltd (trust litigation in Bermuda), and BML Properties Ltd v China Construction America (dispute over the $3.5 billion Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas).

Career

Called 2011 (Gray’s Inn)

Professional Memberships

COMBAR, ChBA, FSLA, Art Lawyers Association, MCIArb

Personal

EDUCATION - MA (University of Oxford), MA (University of London), MPhil (University of Cambridge), Dip.Law (City University).

Publications

Cryptoassets chapter in Financial Services Law (5th edn, forthcoming in 2024)

Sanctions chapter in Paget's Law of Banking (2023)

Judgments chapter in Phipson on Evidence (2021)

Decision to Prosecute chapter in Regulatory and Disciplinary Proceedings (10th edn, 2019)