King’s New Year’s Honours: Lawyer James Palmer of Herbert Smith Freehills named a CBE

A senior corporate and governance lawyer from Berden has been made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the King’s New Year Honours.

James Palmer, who moved to the Uttlesford village from Much Hadham, receives the award for services to business and to law. He has worked for leading international legal firm Herbert Smith Freehills for almost 40 years.

One of the UK’s leading mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate lawyers, he is recognised as a leading expert in relation to Brexit and foreign direct investment regulation.

Mr Palmer has worked for more than 25 years on the development of business regulation in the UK and EU, and has worked with governments and regulators on developing new law and regulation.

He was deeply involved in development of the Companies Act 2006 and development of the UK listed company regulatory regime.

Mr Palmer joined elite litigation and arbitration practice Herbert Smith Freehills, which has headquarters in the City of London and Sydney, Australia, as a trainee solicitor in 1986, having graduated with a law degree from Queens’ College, Cambridge. He was appointed a partner in 1994.

He was a member of the firm’s governing Partnership Council from 2002 to 2006 and led its global equity capital markets practice from 2005 to 2010.

He was also its global head of corporate from 2010 to 2012 and was chair and senior partner from 2015 to 2021.

In 2015, Mr Palmer was appointed expert adviser on Brexit to the UK Parliament’s Treasury Committee and has given evidence to the committee on financial services regulation and governance.

He is a general editor of and contributor to Butterworth’s Takeovers: Law and Practice and has contributed to other leading reference works on takeovers and corporate law, including Buckley on the Companies Acts and Hannigan and Prentice’s Guide to the Companies Act 2006.

“I feel very grateful and fortunate to receive this recognition, which is testament to the incredible encouragement and collaboration of my colleagues working to improve the quality of UK law and regulation and the competitiveness of the UK, both at Herbert Smith Freehills and across the wider legal and business communities,” said Mr Palmer.

“I am also deeply grateful for the extraordinary support of my family over the years, helping me to pursue my career.”

Herbert Smith Freehills represents a host of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange and has an in-house advocacy unit staffed by numerous KCs.

Rebecca Maslen-Stannage, chair and senior partner of Herbert Smith Freehills, said: “James’ love of, and unwavering dedication to, the law is commendable, having inspired many people and made an exceptional, positive impact on the competitiveness of the UK economy, across the wider business community and the legal sector.

“He has been particularly involved in pursuing improvements in corporate and governance law, takeover regulation, capital markets and wider financial services law and regulation. However. his interests and engagement go much wider than this.

“We are proud to celebrate this well-deserved recognition with James.”