Jim's Profile
Jim is a Shareholder in Maynard Cooper’s Litigation Practice and serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.
He has experience representing clients in complex commercial disputes involving a wide range of issues, including business torts, insurance coverage, health care, real estate, and products liability. Jim’s extensive trial experience includes handling matters filed in state and federal courts across Alabama and the Southeast, as well as matters being heard in both traditional and alternative dispute resolution forums.
Jim’s extensive list of clients span many industry sectors, enhancing his litigation skills with industry-specific, operational knowledge. He has tried to a verdict a broad range of cases, including matters involving real property, medical devices, construction defects, personal injuries, product design, professional negligence, and insurance coverage. His talents and success as a litigator have earned him consistent and significant recognition in The Best Lawyers in America© and Super Lawyers for numerous years, and Martindale-Hubbell rates Jim as an AV-Preeminent lawyer.
Jim earned his J.D. cum laude from the South Texas College of Law, and he holds a B.S. from Vanderbilt University.
Jim's Experience
- Led team of lawyers and defended condominium lenders in multimillion dollar lien priority dispute with owner’s association.
- Defended various drug and medical device manufacturers in case involving anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic agents, weight loss medications, and fracture fixation devices.
- Defended hospital system in federal and state court class actions brought by putative class of uninsured patients.
- Represented eighteen former directors and officers of healthcare company arising out of alleged accounting fraud scandal against D&O carriers.
- Defended magazine distributors and sweepstakes operator against 209 Alabama opt outs from class action settlement.
Jim's Awards
- The Best Lawyers in America© for Commercial Litigation, Insurance Law, Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions: Defendants, Product Liability Litigation: Defendants (2010-present)
- Mid-South Super Lawyers for General Litigation (2016-present)
- B-Metro, Selected as a Top Attorney (2020)
- Alabama Super Lawyers for General Litigation (2008-2015); “Top 50 Lawyers in Alabama” (2011-2012)
- Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent Rating
Jim's Affiliations and Civic Involvement
Affiliations
- Defense Research Institute
- American Bar Association, Fellow
- Alabama Defense Lawyers Association
- Alabama State Bar Association
- Birmingham Bar Association
South Texas College of Law (1995, J.D., cum laude; South Texas Law Review, Note and Comment Editor; Order of the Lytae)
Vanderbilt University (1992, B.S.)
