Partner
James is head of our Residential Property department; and is the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) under our Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation. He also sits on the firm’s Management Committee.
James handles all sorts of Residential Property transactions, from very small flats to vast rural homes and surrounding land. He also has extensive experience advising Charity Trustees on the more commercial aspects of their property matters.
James’ clients include professionals, entrepreneurs, high net worth individuals, investors, rural landowners and estates, private and offshore trustees, charities, residential property management companies, and professional practices. He is very pleased to take regular instructions from private home buyers and sellers, especially first-time buyers.
Qualified in 1997, James joined Hunters as a partner on our merger with Vernor-Miles & Noble in 2011.
James is recognised in the Chambers and Partners HNW (2024) directory as ‘A huge pleasure to work with as he was clearly extremely experienced from the outset. He provided very clear professional advice and guidance throughout, ensuring a positive outcome‘. He is also a recommended lawyer in the Legal 500 (2025), described as ‘best of breed‘ and commended for overseeing transactions ‘masterfully with solid advice which is clearly based on huge experience‘.
Awards
“James Vernor-Miles has proved wholly accurate and reliable and is best of breed. He is kind enough to pretend that I am the only problem on his desk.”
“James Vernor Miles and Scott Battram. James – extremely efficient, understood my issues. Insightful. Pushed the other side. Scott – did a lot of the heavy lifting, again very thorough. A good and impressive team.”
“James Vernor-Miles and Cordelia Smith are both highly efficient and I believe outstanding in their field.”