As Assistant General Counsel, Jim advises the firm in the areas of professional responsibility and risk management, including on issues involving conflicts, legal ethics, firm policy, and litigation.
Before becoming Assistant General Counsel, Jim was a shareholder in the firm's International Litigation Department, representing clients in a wide range of domestic and international commercial litigation matters before federal and state courts and arbitration panels. Before joining the firm in 1997, he worked as law clerk to U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King of the Southern District of Florida; and before that as a reporter and editor at the (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) Sun-Sentinel.
Areas of Concentration
· Professional responsibility issues
· General commercial and civil litigation
· Shareholder and corporate litigation
· International and domestic commercial arbitration
Significant Representations
· Represented professional basketball player in dispute with major sports agent and premier Russian basketball team; guided same basketball player through NBA and foreign eligibility hurdles.
· Defended international air courier against competitor's injunction action brought under the Lanham Act and state-law unfair trade statutes.
· Defended Argentina-based designer-manufacturer against action arising from construction of two prisons in Argentina.
· Represented fine-art broker in dispute centered on indicted art dealer's fraudulent transactions involving works by artists Botero and Chagall.
· Obtained full ownership of manufacturing business for shareholder in AAA arbitration involving competing shareholders' "shotgun offer."
· Represents business owner against contractor who constructed three-quarter million dollar manufacturing plant at incorrect location.
· Vindicated, in administrative proceedings, major insurance company's right to exclude coverage for mold-related losses from its homeowners and commercial multi-peril policies within Florida.
· Defended seller of painting by deceased Cuban artist Carreño against purchaser's forgery claim.
· Prosecuted specific-performance action for buyer of $40 million hotel against seller who claimed purchase contract failed for default.
· Obtained judgment or settlement on behalf of quasi-public insurance trust in two dozen actions against non-paying physician-members.
· Represented purchaser of million dollar property in action against seller who assigned incorrect version of long-term tenant's lease.
· Obtained million-dollar award for intestate heirs and heir-finder service, and defeated ex-wife's competing claim premised on extraordinary doctrine of dependent relative revocation and on undue influence.
Professional & Community Involvement
· Member, American Bar Association
· Undergraduate-applicant interviewer for Columbia University Alumni Recruiting Committee, 2005-present
· Volunteer Attorney Ad Litem, Lawyers For Children America, 1999-present
· Reporter and editor, (Fort Lauderdale, FL) Sun-Sentinel, 1984-1993
· Volunteer counselor and trainer, Crisis Line of Palm Beach County, 1989-1993
· Editor, Indonesian Observer, Jakarta, Java, Indonesia, 1977
· English-language teacher in Jakarta, Java, Indonesia, 1977
Clerkship
· Law Clerk, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King, 1996-97