James Hamilton

James is a Legal Director in the Private Wealth & Capital group advising entrepreneurs, private businesses, high net worth individuals, family offices and their professional advisers on the corporate and transactional matters that sit closest to their personal and financial lives. He works closely with clients' wider professional teams – including accountants, wealth managers and private bankers – to ensure that corporate matters sit coherently within each client's broader financial and personal picture. Discretion and long-term relationships are hallmarks of his approach.

His practice is centred on the needs of privately held businesses and the individuals behind them. He has particular experience with UK and international mergers and acquisitions, joint venture structures and arrangements, private investments, and corporate planning and restructuring. He also advises family offices and high net worth individuals on corporate wealth structuring, including onshore and offshore planning, the use of holding companies and family investment vehicles, and personal and family business succession.

James advises on corporate governance and shareholder arrangements, and the resolution of disputes between shareholders, investors, family members and joint venture partners. He also has experience with trust and estate disputes involving business interests, as well as advising on restructuring and sales following insolvency.

At the heart of his practice is a combination of technical rigour and a genuine understanding of the personal, family and commercial dynamics that define the businesses and families he advises.

Key Experience

• Acting for the beneficiary of a substantial trust dispute settlement, involving the establishment of new joint venture vehicles post-settlement. The matter required working closely alongside tax and corporate advisers in several jurisdictions to achieve the most advantageous structuring for the client.
• Advising the trustees of a substantial commercial real estate portfolio on pre-sale structuring, divestment and reinvestment options. The engagement involved resolving a contentious consultation exercise with third parties and project managing other advisers and the management team of the portfolio across several jurisdictions.
• Acting for a group of minority shareholders to resolve a dispute in respect of their collective investments in a well-known international business group, involving the restructuring of the group's share capital and the entry into new instruments to protect future value.
• Acting for Galileo Global Education Group in respect of their acquisition of Corndel, a higher education training institution, for £135 million. The transaction involved establishing a new equity structure post-acquisition to provide for key management personnel alongside Galileo.
• Acting for a high net worth individual acquiring a majority interest in an online gaming platform. The transaction spanned 10 jurisdictions and included negotiation of the sale of a majority stake in the existing entity, a joint venture arrangement post-sale, various licensing and regulatory complications, and bespoke debt funding structures.
• Acting for Malaysian conglomerate in respect of its 49% interest in the an international automotive group and an international restructuring of the group's assets alongside its co-shareholder.
• Acting for the plurality shareholder in online cosmetics business Cult Beauty to negotiate the sale of its entire share capital to The Hut Group for £275 million. The transaction involved a delicate negotiation among a large cohort of shareholders to achieve a successful outcome.
• Acting regularly for an offshore trust making direct investments and entering into joint venture arrangements with several UK businesses in the hospitality, hotels and commercial real estate sectors. The advice included creating bespoke lending arrangements.
• Acting for the beneficiaries of a testamentary trust which owned a significant interest in a holding company with rights to an intellectual property-rich estate, including published works and associated character and brand rights. The advice involved settling a dispute relating to the corporate governance of the holding company through the implementation of new board and shareholder arrangements.
• Acting for Greybull Capital on its acquisition of the McLaren Applied business, including negotiation of transitional services between the spun-out Applied business and the McLaren Group to support the business post-transaction.
• Acting for the administrators of Arrium Ltd, on the sale of the majority of the Arrium business and assets to GFG Alliance for in excess of AU$600 million. This was a highly publicised transaction involving a large workforce, as well as state and federal government bodies in Australia, and required approval of a landmark insolvency transaction.

Career History

Legal Director, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Senior Associate, Withers LLP
Associate, Forsters LLP
Lawyer, Arnold Bloch Leibler (Melbourne, Australia)
University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
University of Melbourne, Juris Doctor