James Cox is a partner in the London office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a member of the firm’s Labour and Employment Practice Group.

James has extensive experience in contentious and non-contentious labor and employment matters, with an emphasis on cross-border employment issues, collective labor and industrial disputes, redundancies and workforce restructurings, ARD/TUPE, the employment aspects of public and private mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing arrangements, corporate governance matters, boardroom appointments and removals, contractor and directorship matters, employment issues facing private equity companies, whistle-blowing, equal pay and other discrimination claims, worker consultation, enforcing and resisting post-employment restrictive covenants, and protecting confidential information from misuse by current and former employees. James also advises on data privacy and data protection issues.

James is recommended as a leading lawyer for Employment in the 2007-2024 annual editions of Chambers UK, in which clients have noted: “James is an excellent lawyer who is able to handle complex and sensitive situations well”, “he understands the commercial objectives of the client and he knows how to achieve them” and “he is excellent: he is very responsive, he is easy to deal with and he also effectively manages advice from different jurisdictions.” He is also ranked as a leading employment lawyer by Chambers Global 2022 and recognised in Chambers Europe 2013, Best Lawyers (2009-2023), Euromoney’s Labour & Employment Expert Guide  and UK Legal Experts 2012. James is also recognised by The Legal 500 UK 2024 for Employment. James has been interviewed on matters relating to employment law on television and radio and has been quoted in The Times, The Sunday Times  and Financial Times  newspapers on employment law issues. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Employment Lawyers Association and at commercial conferences.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, James practiced as a partner in the Employment, Incentives and Pensions department of a major English law firm.