Bio

In 2012, James Edwards established Edwards + Co with the vision of creating a commercial, agile and value-led alternative to large law firms. His approach is to identify key commercial and legal issues quickly and proactively, and tailor advice in a clear, communicative and client-focused way. He combines the technical expertise of large law, with practical experience from legal and business roles in multinational corporates and working closely with founders of ambitious start up enterprises. James’ corporate practice includes day-to-day advisory on shareholder, governance, solvency and other matters, as well as the full range of M&A, equity capital raise and debt deals. His commercial practice covers all forms of business contracts, employment issues, compliance and disputes, with particular expertise in complex technology and media contracts. James has deep and specialised experience in the commercialisation of data and IP, and advises some of Australia’s biggest and best known private and listed media companies. He has acted on a range of key agreements across traditional and new media assets, and on ground-breaking arrangements with respect to big data, programmatic and SaaS platforms. James also works closely with digital start ups, and understands the kinds of solutions and support these businesses need. James commenced his career with a decade in top tier private practice in Australia, then held corporate legal and business roles across Asia for world-leading media and telecommunications companies, including Turner Broadcasting and Orange Telecom. Working in the dynamic markets of Asia, he has advised on many significant legal structures across the region, including major joint ventures and content licensing and distribution deals. He was the key legal advisor acting for the telco operators in establishing the Virgin Mobile joint ventures in Australia and Singapore. James has published numerous articles on corporate and commercial law and the evolving challenges and opportunities arising from digital disruption. He holds Laws and Arts degrees, both with honours, from Melbourne University, and has been admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW and Victoria.