James Chadwick

He is recognised as a leader in the field in Legal 500, widely regarded by his clients as the premier financial services litigation, contentious regulatory and investigations lawyer in the northwest and is described as “fast becoming the go-to litigation partner in the UK, not just the North”.

James has extensive experience advising on high profile issues spanning regulatory intervention, associated litigation and redress schemes. He advises UK lenders and global plc's on key risk issues including crisis response to widely publicised data breaches, the Consumer Duty, the regulatory intervention into the motor market and conduct and operational risk investigations.

James routinely advises market-leading financial institutions and their senior managers on a range of regulatory investigations, including internal and whistleblowing investigations. His contentious regulatory practice includes complex advisory, strategic and risk management work, including Section 166 reviews, past business reviews and change programmes. James has extensive experience advising across a broad range of regulatory issues including redress and remediation, systems and controls, regulatory reporting, operational resilience, fraud, mis-selling and the treatment of customers.  

James advises on litigation and rectification strategy, with a particular specialism in group litigation, risk management and issues flowing from loan portfolio acquisitions including global substitution applications.  

He is a thought leader across the industry including most recently as an author of the GIR Practitioner's Guide to Global Investigations Edition 10 and chair of City and Financials’ FCA Investigations and Enforcement Summit 2025.

James is Client Relationship Partner for a number of TLT’s key clients including Santander UK and Capita plc. By combining legal insight and commercial acumen, James is considered by many clients as their trusted advisor.

Jurisdiction: England & Wales

• Acting as Lead Partner for a global regulated corporation concerning one of the UK’s largest cyber security incidents – advising on its strategic response to group litigation (defending c.13,000 claims in a Group Litigation context) and complaints together with enforcement investigations instigated by multiple regulators (FCA, ICO, TPR).
• Lead partner on a significant investigation and associated portfolio remediation for a high-profile UK bank concerning its management of data, operational resilience, systems and controls failings and the conduct of managers and Senior Managers.
• Advising a global regulated outsourcer as Lead Partner on its data management framework and programme of remedial activity, supporting regulatory and third-party engagement (ICO, FCA and government bodies) together with managing litigation risk.
• Supporting a cryptocurrency exchange in ensuring compliance with the regulatory standards in the UK and Switzerland in respect of (i) AML policies and procedures; and (ii) a subsequent KYC file review and remediation.
• Advising on industry wide consultation and proposed remediation activity following the FCA’s review of the motor market and linked mass litigation and complaints, including as Lead Partner advising on the associated Skilled Person Review.
• Lead partner on a number of the largest cross jurisdiction title rectification projects undertaken across the industry on behalf of multiple lenders.