Jim is a partner and former Chair of the Business Litigation group at Thompson Hine LLP’s Cleveland office. Jim has won big verdicts for clients, including Avery Dennison ($81 million jury verdict on international espionage case) and Solvay Pharmaceuticals ($68 million arbitration award on drug co-promotion agreement). Jim is also the author of two non-fiction books dealing with the American presidency: Linking Rings, William W. Durbin and the Magic and Mystery of America (Kent State University Press 2004) and The Harding Affair, Love and Espionage During the Great War (Palgrave 2009). Jim recently completed his next book, drawing on research for the WatergateCLE courses, which he will publish in the Spring of 2015. He is also a recognized leader in judicial reform in Ohio.

Jim teaches and instructs on the legal ethics and the representation of an organization under new Model Rules 1.13 and 1.6. Using John Dean as fact witness and Watergate as a case study, Jim and Mr. Dean have developed an interactive, fast-paced program that explores the duties of an attorney representing an organization when wrongdoing is uncovered. Rule 1.13 defines “organization” broadly, including corporations, partnerships, unions, governmental entities and the like.

Launched in Chicago in June 2011, the seminar has received glowing reviews both for its engaging presentation and its relevance to the most current rules of legal ethics. “Best CLE I have ever attended,” is the most common reaction.