James Harrison

James is a founding partner of our construction and engineering team in Newcastle. Over the last 6 years he has helped to grow the team from its inception to over 20 lawyers, making it one of the largest construction and engineering legal teams in the country.

James has acted for a variety of public sector and private developers, house-builders, end users/owner occupiers, landlords, tenants and funders. He operates across a range of sectors including: residential development, education, commercial and investment, retail, renewable energy and infrastructure.

James drafts and negotiates development agreements, collaboration agreements, build contracts, supply chain contracts and ancillary documentation (such as bonds, warranties, guarantees and step-in arrangements). He regularly delivers workshops to clients on risk allocation, contracts law and procurement.

James assists the dispute resolution team by applying his transactional experience to practical issues that regularly crop up during the construction and post-construction phase of a project. Whilst his primary focus is on providing procurement advice, he also advises clients on contract formation and contract negotiation. This means he is often called on to provide ad-hoc advice on contract interpretation and to consider potential solutions or alternatives to invoking formal dispute resolution procedures. James is also experienced in acting for clients in adjudications, arbitrations and court proceedings.

James and his team work with the real estate property, planning and corporate teams to provide a fully integrated and seamless service to clients on transactional work, for example, advising on; acquiring or selling land, new builds, extensions, refurbishments and conversion developments.

Relevant experience includes advising:

• A number of national housebuilders on residential and mixed use developments around the country.
• A university on a £40 million city centre refurbishment project.
• A local authority on the re-development of a town centre and retail park.
• A contractor on renewable energy projects in the UK.

James has been quoted in both Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 for the last 10 years. He is currently a Band 1 ranked construction lawyer.

The Chambers & Partners directory (2019 and 2020) has commented as follows on James:

“ ’His knowledge and attention to detail is unparalleled and he clearly cares about both his work and clients’, declares one interviewee'.”

“Clients laud him as extremely client-focused, extremely knowledgeable, proactive and pragmatic … he also wins praise for his leadership and ‘quick and coherent advice’."

“Clients say: ‘He is a superb practitioner - he runs our construction work as if he were in-house, and is dedicated to us through and through’."

In addition to the above, James has again been nominated in the Acritas Stars Independently Rated Lawyers Talent Survey 2020.