Jim focuses his practice on business and corporate work with an additional concentration in tax law.
Jim has practiced law in Winston-Salem for 41 years. He began his legal career with the predecessor firm to Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP. In 1992, he and another partner organized and managed their own firm, which grew to 12 attorneys in a few years. Jim joined Bell, Davis & Pitt in 2006.
Jim’s principal areas of practice are:
- Assisting business clients in organizational, tax, contractual, transactional, and commercial legal matters related to the formation and operation of such client’s business, including mergers and acquisitions
- Providing services and counsel in personal and commercial taxation, general estate and trust planning, and estate probate matters.
Jim has participated in many local community activities, including Rotary Club and church service. His professional activities have also included teaching and writing for legal education courses and serving as an adjunct professor at the Wake Forest University Babcock School of Management.
Jim grew up in a small town, Rockingham, North Carolina. His wife was his high school sweetheart and a public school teacher for 30 years. They married in 1973 and, after law school, moved to Winston-Salem where they raised two children — one, a poet who now publishes a poetry magazine, and the other, an actor-musician at heart but now a successful businessman in New York. Jim enjoys spending time with his family (including two granddaughters who live nearby), relaxing at the beach, playing golf, and being a devoted Duke Blue Devil.