James Johnstone

As well as being a founder and director of Pavocat, James is a practising barrister at Pavocat Chambers. He set up his own company James Johnstone Ltd in 1999 to handle complex problems and interesting projects for high-net-worth individuals, companies and governments around the world, across a uniquely broad range of services. James has acquired an extensive global contact base of professionals and service providers at the highest level, allowing him to build teams from scratch to handle almost any problem with which he has been faced. 

 

As a trusted advisor to his clients, he specialises in thinking ‘outside the box’ and providing innovative solutions to seemingly impossible requests. His father was a diplomat in the British Foreign Office, which is why James was born in Syria and lived in Pakistan, Cambodia and Ireland before the family returned to England.  James began working in London in 1984 as a project manager, and then returned to university where he gained a Combined Honours (Law & English) First Class Degree at Oxford Brookes University in 1992. He was a Hardwicke Scholar at Lincoln’s Inn, and was called to the Bar in 1993.  

 

From 2003-2008 he was Chairman of the British Red Cross’s largest annual fundraising event, for which he won 9 national awards. He has also advised numerous other charities, and has raised millions of pounds for good causes in the UK and abroad. James speaks fluent French and good Spanish.