Thomas James

Barrister at Ten Old Square

Speaker

Tom has a broad chancery practice with an emphasis on wills, trusts and estate disputes, related non-contentious advisory work (including tax advice), and commercial and property litigation.

He is ranked as a Rising Star for Private Wealth and Probate in the Legal 500 Bar Guide 2026.

Tom is equally happy acting led or unled and is often instructed against counsel considerably senior to him. He appeared as sole counsel in the Court of Appeal in Gorbachev v Guriev [2022] EWCA Civ 1270, [2023] KB 1. He also regularly appears in the County Court and High Court, alongside specialist experience in the First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Court of Protection.

Before joining Chambers, Tom worked in the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) as the Judicial Assistant to the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Patten. He is a joint editor of Mellows: Taxation for Executors & Trustees and co-author of Parker’s Will Precedents (12^th ed., forthcoming). Tom also writes for Practical Law on a range of topics, and was seconded to a tier 1 London law firm in 2024.

Tom was appointed to the Attorney General’s C Panel in 2024, his first year of eligibility. He is a committee member (Honorary Secretary) of the Contentious Trusts Association (ConTrA).