James is a founding partner of JWSS. He has expertise in all aspects of the protection and exploitation of intellectual property rights and ideas in the creative industries including related commerce and personal asset management.
Previously James set up the legal and business affairs department for the Virgin Group. From Virgin he moved to become Managing Director and regional Vice President of the UK and European music publishing division of CBS Corporation. During that time, he also served as director of the Mechanical Rights Society (now merged with MCPS) and was chairman of its Audit Committee. Subsequently, as a partner at Davenport Lyons for 18 years until 2005, James revitalised that firm's music department and contributed to the firm’s growth in the creative industries and related areas of information technology, including computer software, e-commerce and the internet.