James Campbell leads the Corporate practice of the London office and acts for clients, ranging from startups to Fortune 50 companies and governments, on a broad range of issues.

James’s practice includes mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, joint ventures, IPOs, private equity, venture capital, fund formation, investment management, issues of compliance and corporate governance, investigations and asset recovery, and sports law.

Representative Experience

Mergers & Acquisitions

  • Represented Tremor in its $239 million acquisition of Amobee (awarded 2024 Cross-Border Deal of the Year (Mid-Market) by M&A Atlas Global Markets Awards).
  • Represented Chelsea Football Club in its £4.25 billion acquisition by a consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital (awarded 2022 M&A Deal of the Year for Large Deals £1 billion or more from the British Legal Awards).
  • Represented Rockley Photonics in its $1.2 billion deSpac business combination with SC Health.

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  • Represented Myco on its joint venture with the Oman Investment Authority to produce alternative food protein from dates.
  • Represented Upland Software on its $54million acquisition of Blue Venn Group.
  • Represented Allen & Co as financial advisor on the acquisition of AWAL by Sony Music Entertainment.
  • Represented Ago Hotels on the creation of a platform backed by Accor, and the exercise of a break option granted to landlords in the CVA of Travelodge, to create a new hotel operation trading under the IBIS brand.
  • Represented TempoCap in its acquisition of a portfolio of fintech and insurtech companies comprising interests in Currencycloud, Azimo, Acorns, dacadoo and Simplesurance.
  • Represented Nikola on its planned acquisition of ZapGo.
  • Represented RhythmOne in its £260 million merger of equals with Taptica.
  • Represented YuMe in its $185 million acquisition by RhythmOne (awarded 2019 Corporate/Strategic Deal of the Year ($100 million to $200 million) from the M&A Advisor Awards).
  • Represented 8X8 in its £16.5 million acquisition of DXI.
  • Represented Atlas Copco in connection with its $1.6 billion agreement to acquire Edwards Group Limited.
  • Represented Atlas Holdings in its acquisition of Shorewood Packaging and its international affiliations from International Paper (awarded 2013 Corporate/Strategic Acquisition of the Year ($100 million to $200 million) from the M&A Advisor Awards).
  • Energy and Mining
    • Representing Emmerson in its project financing of the Khemisset Potash deposit in Morocco.
    • Represented the government of Somalia on their first-ever offshore licensing round comprising seven blocks covering over 30,000 square km.
    • Represented Chevron on its sale of a 30% equity in the Sarta PSC and 40% equity in the Qara Dagh PSC, both in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, to Genel Energy.
    • Represented Chevron on its sale of Chevron South Natuna B, which held its 25% participating interest in the South Natura B Field in Indonesia.
    • Represented Chevron on its sale of an interest in OML 140 in Nigeria.
    • Represented Tengizchevroil on its engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract for the provision of terminal services at Prova to support the Future Growth Project for the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan.
  • Venture
    • Represented Chevron Technology Ventures as strategic investor in Series B round for Carbon Clean Solutions.
    • Represented Beacon Equity Partners on its investment in Encompass.
    • Represented Allen & Co as financial advisor on Amazon’s investment as part of $575 million funding round by Deliveroo.
    • Represented Globalvoice on its Series B round.
    • Represented Chevron Technology Ventures on its investment in Series C funding round by Silixa.
    • Represented Cavendish Kinetics on its Series D round.
  • Equity and Debt Capital Markets
    • Represented Shard Capital as placing agent on $30 million issuance of foreign currency convertible bonds by Lancer Container Lines.
    • Represented Arkios as placing agent on offering of 700,000 global depositary receipts of Raj Oil Mills.
    • Represented Arkios as placing agent on offering of 2,200,000 global depositary receipts of SEL Manufacturing Company.
    • Represented Greka Engineering & Technology on its demerger and IPO on AIM.
    • Represented Verseon on its planned security token offering.
    • Represented AirAsia on its IPO on the Bursa Malaysia.
    • Represented Deutsche Bank Trust Company as corporate trustee, registrar and agent in respect of offering of $500 million 3.625% notes issued by the Bank of India.
    • Represented Green Dragon Gas on its IPO on AIM.
  • Restructuring
    • Represented PPL Shipyards in the restructuring of the $760 million debt owed by Borr Drilling to the shipyard.
    • Represented Travelodge Owners Action Group on opposition to the proposed CVA of Travelodge.
    • Represented Taulia in the pre- and post-administration of Greensill.
    • Represented Amazon on the post-acquisition restructuring and integration of Veeqo.
    • Represented EBRD on the restructuring of its loan facilities to Bulsatcom group.
    • Represented Planet Medical on its restructuring.
    • Represented Concept Holding on its pre-pack purchase of Concept Art House from Zattikka (in administration).

Professional Highlights

  • James is regularly invited to speak at conferences and is frequently quoted in the press.
  • He is the author of a considerable number of publications and is joint author of Practical Lending and Security Precedents (Sweet and Maxwell).

Honors & Awards

  • James has been recognised by The Legal 500 UK for more than a decade in each of its annual editions.

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Associations

  • The International Bar Association
  • The Arab Bankers Association
  • The City of London Solicitors Company

Education

  • LL.M., St John's College, University of Cambridge, 1982

    M.A., St John's College, University of Cambridge, 1981

Admissions

  • England and Wales