James Bateson

Practice Areas

James Bateson is the Head of our Financial Institutions and Insurance Group and member of the Corporate, M&A and Securities Department.

James has more than 30 years' experience of advising both domestic and international insurers and reinsurers, private equity firms, investment banks, and other industry participants (including Lloyd's market participants) in relation to corporate, regulatory and transactional matters. His experience includes public and private mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, distribution arrangements, restructurings, Part VII transfers, corporate governance, regulatory issues including regulatory investigations and enforcement action, capital markets transactions and financings. James is an acknowledged industry leader for cross border M&A and restructuring work in the insurance and financial services sectors.

James is regularly recommended in legal directories and is ranked as a "Leading Individual" by Legal 500, 2022 and as an "Eminent Practitioner" by Chambers UK 2022 and in The Best Lawyers in the United Kingdom - Insurance 2023 edition. He is also recommended in Who's Who Legal: Insurance and Reinsurance, Global Guide 2020. James garners praise from clients for being "not only a technical lawyer but a good business lawyer" who "gives fantastic advice and is always accessible" - Chambers UK 2020. "He elevates everyone's game - he thinks very broadly about the issues at stake and is always trying to broaden the conversation to ensure different perspectives are brought in" – Chambers UK 2021.

James is a co-author of the chapter on authorization in the Practitioners Guide to the Financial Services and Markets Act (fifth edition, 2014) and is a regular public speaker and media commentator. He was a member of the Insurance Law Sub-Committee of the City of London Law Society from 2002 to 2007.

James is a director of Treloar Trust, which oversees Treloar School and College for Disabled Young People, a national leader in special education, where he is Chair of the Risk and Compliance Committee. He served on the Norton Rose Management Committee from 2001 to 2007 and on the Supervisory Board from 2008 to 2011. He is the Mental Health sponsor for the EMEA business.