Melanie James

Partner

photo for Melanie James

What can I do for you

Melanie is the employment lawyer that businesses want on their team.  She has a wealth of experience supporting private sector employers, both international and domestic, at all stages of their lifecycle.  Whilst Melanie's practice is diverse, she has a particular interest and focus on the Life Sciences sector.

What do others say

Clients describe Melanie as "exceptional".  Speaking of a contentious CEO exit, "she helped us anticipate issues and has guided us though UK law and practice on facts that were changing by the hour.  She soldiered on with us through it all.  She has done a superb job and has made the firm shine in the eyes of our management team".

Supporting your ambitions

Melanie's collaborative approach and her ability to quickly get to the heart of the matter, supports her clients in delivering on their organisational ambitions and objectives.  Melanie supports businesses in achieving their longer term strategic aims such as workforce planning and organisational change.  She also excels in navigating business-critical issues with no fuss and a reassuringly cool head.  Melanie is particularly adept at crisis-management and containment and thrives on complex, challenging and novel matters. She has been described by a client as a "sharpshooter" because of her ability to deliver results swiftly, with minimal impact on business operations and brand.

What else should you know?

Melanie is passionate about health, fitness and wellbeing.  When Melanie is not applying her energy and focus in the workplace and going the extra mile for her clients, she is generally going the extra 140.6 miles as an Iron Man triathlete.

Additional Information

Our employment tribunal fees

Please follow the link below to find out more about our legal fees.

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What our clients say about us

“I think Mills & Reeve are a wonderful firm. The support they have provided to us in a really difficult area has been brilliant, collaborative and commercially minded. The team were absolutely wonderful and a joy to work with. Amazing advice and support and a real collaborative effort with us. I can't thank them enough for getting us through some really tough times and doing so with an amazing can-do attitude.”

“They are friendly, fast, always available and always on top of the game. I tend to judge my legal team against the other side's legal team and never doubt Mills & Reeve is the better of the two.”

“All interactions have been very clear. Responses to questions have always been very swift and unambiguous. Our company, and my family, have used various services in Mills & Reeve with the same level of satisfaction.”

“I value the fact that Mills & Reeve are recognised as a good place to work in the UK Best Companies survey. This aligns with the values of our business and means that Mills & Reeve can share what is required to achieve this status with our business.”