James practises in commercial and common law. He accepts briefs in personal injuries, products liability, insurance and reinsurance, and professional negligence. He has extensive experience in matters involving medical negligence, industrial accidents, institutional abuse, and asbestos-related diseases. James regularly apears in the County Court, Supreme Court, and Court of Appeal. He acts for both plaintiffs and defendants.
James holds a BSc (Hons) in mathematics, an LLB and an LLM from the University of Melbourne, and an MBA and DPhil in law from the University of Oxford (Christ Church). He has taught contract law, tort law, and Roman Private law at the University of Oxford. James has a keen interest in the law of negligence and his research has been published in a number of leading law journals, including the Law Quarterly Review, Cambridge Law Journal, Monash Law Review, Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, and Journal of Professional Negligence. He has presented many research papers, including at the Universities of Melbourne, Oxford, and Cambridge. James is also the author of the ‘The Duty of Care in Negligence’ (Hart 2018), the first book-length treatment of the duty enquiry in a common law jurisdiction in almost 20 years.
Prior to joining the Victorian Bar, James practised as a barrister at a leading common law set in London, having been called to the bar at Inner Temple in 2015.
Away from chambers, James enjoys spending time with his family, reading, and supporting the St Kilda Football Club.
Publications
Conference Papers
- The Principles for Determining the Existence of a Duty of Care (Obligations Group, Melbourne Law School Torts Conference, December 2018)
- Salient Features and the Duty of Care (Obligations Discussion Group, University of Oxford, November 2018)
- Prince Alfred College and Vicarious Liability (Australian Lawyers Alliance Annual Victorian Conference, Bendigo, May, 2017)
- Duty Methodologies in Australia, Canada and the UK (Obligations VIII, Cambridge, July 2016)
- When is a material contribution enough to establish causation? (12KBW Seminar, Temple, London, March 2016)
- Principle and Policy in Private Law Reasoning (SLS Annual Conference, Nottingham, September 2014).
- The Medieval Origins of the Duty of Care (Oxford Graduate Legal Research Conference, Oxford, April 2012)
Articles / Notes
- Keeping Negligence Simple (2022) 138 Law Quarterly Review 175 (with Donal Nolan)
- Vicarious Liability: Critique and Reform (2020) 36 Professional Negligence 161 (book review)
- Contributory Negligence: Principles and Practice (2020) 36 Professional Negligence 97 (book review)
- The Foreseeability Element of the Duty of Care (2019) 135 Law Quarterly Review 521 (with James Goudkamp)
- Causation in the High Court of Australia: A Matter of Common Sense? (2019) 153 Precedent 10
- Cavalier v Pope: another victim of the Grenfell Tower fire? [2018] Journal of Personal Injury Law 174
- Damages and Compensation Culture: Comparative Perspectives (2018) 34 Professional Negligence 103 (book review)
- Vicarious Liability in Australia: On the move? (2017) 17 Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal 162 (with James Goudkamp)
- Evidential Uncertainty in Causation in Negligence (2016) 23 Torts Law Journal 186 (book review)
- Taking Stock of Vicarious Liability (2016) 132 Law Quarterly Review 556
- Causation in Asbestos-Related Lung Cancer Claims (2016) 32 Professional Negligence 158
- Principle and Policy in Private Law Reasoning (2016) 75 Cambridge Law Journal 366
- The Historical Foundations of the Duty of Care (2015) 41 Monash Law Review 716.
- Tort Law Defences (2014) 88 Australian Law Journal 214 (book review).
- Snail in a Bottle Leaves Trail (2012) 86(7) Law Institute Journal 57.
- The Role of the Attorney-General in Defending the Judiciary (2010) 19 Journal of Judicial Administration 160.
- Take Care with Negligence (2010) 84(5) Law Institute Journal 38.
- Limitation Periods in Personal Injury Actions, (2009) 92(3) Precedent 30.
Books