James Bagge, formerly a senior dispute resolution partner, is now a senior consultant attached to the Dispute Resolution Department based in London. His specialist area is fraud and the regulation of investment and banking business, in particular all forms of investigations, statutory or private, and associated legal proceedings involving the FSA , the SFO , the DTI and revenue authorities.
James’s previous experience includes advising the Board of Banking Supervision on the Barings Inquiry and acting as lead adviser to Ronnie Baird who compiled a report into the FSA’s conduct of the regulation of Equitable Life. Both these reports were published in Parliament. He has acted for a number of leading financial institutions. More generally he acted for the Trustees of the Thyssen Bornemisza Trust in the highly publicised litigation in Bermuda. James was one of the lead partners on our corporate governance initiative. He acted for a large pharmaceutical company prosecuted with others by the Serious Fraud Office for its alleged involvement in cartel activity with regard to the supply of generic drugs to the NHS.
The legal directories identify him as “an absolute leader in this field”, and Chambers and Partners UK 2009 describes him as having "tremendous commercial instincts".
James began his legal career practising at the Criminal Bar, before being seconded to the Serious Fraud Office for two years where he was involved in the prosecution of Guinness and the investigation of Barlow Clowes. He joined the London practice in 1990, became a partner in 1993, and on retirement as a partner was invited to remain in a consultancy capacity.
James was a member of the FSA External Lawyers Consultative Group. He sat for 18 years as a legal assessor on the Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
James authors the Financial Services Decisions Digest published by Lexis Nexis in 2007.