James specialises in planning, environmental, local government and administrative law, compulsory purchase and compensation.
In 2017 and 2018 he was nominated as Real Estate, Environment and Planning Silk of the Year by the Legal 500 Bar Awards and ranked in the top 10 planning silks in the 2017 Planning Magazine review of the UK planning bar.
Prior to taking silk in 2014, James was ranked number one in Planning Magazine's survey of the Junior Planning Bar for three consecutive years (2012, 2013 and 2014), and was named 'Junior Barrister of the Year' in Planning and Environmental Law by Chambers and Partners Directory of the UK Legal Profession on two separate occasions.
James is dedicated to bringing excellence and adding value to his clients' work, and to that end he invests regularly in his personal development and leadership training so that he can bring the benefits of his learning to his clients and support the teams that he works with. He co-writes a regular column in The Lawyer entitled "Loving Legal Life", giving advice on issues of well-being, leadership, career development and professional performace and has been commissioned to write on the same topics in the Bar's own journal, Counsel Magazine, for 2017-2018. He is in demand as a speaker on these topics, and past engagements have included speaking at the Bar Conference, Middle Temple's "Thrive and Survive" series of lectures to the Bar, the Government Legal Service's Annual Staff Conference and the first UK Wellness for Law Forum held at the Inner Temple in 2017. He tweets as @JamesPereiraQC. He is an accredited Member of the Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and is a certified NLP Master Practitioner.
James understands that the decision to instruct Leading Counsel is an important one. He is always willing to meet potential clients to discuss how best he can meet their needs, prior to a decision to instruct him.
