Practice Focus

Complex Commercial Litigation, General Civil Litigation, Land Use Regulation, Media, Domestic Relations

Experience

Jim is a trial lawyer and legal advisor with extensive trial and appellate experience in federal and state courts, trying numerous cases to verdict, and has represented many clients in mediation and arbitration. During his more than two decades of practice, he has represented numerous media clients in cases involving access to records and public proceedings under the New Hampshire and U.S. Constitutions and the New Hampshire Right-to-Know Law. Jim joined Orr & Reno in 1985 after a judicial clerkship with Chief Judge Andrew Caffrey of the United State District Court in Boston and several years in practice with Hale and Dorr in Boston. Jim's experience includes:

• Successfully representing regional and national broadcasters and newspapers in a landmark effort to gain access to the courtroom for video and still cameras, Petition of WMUR Channel 9, 148 N.H. 644 (2002)
• Providing counsel to partnerships and business organizations and serving as trial or arbitration counsel to commercial disputes and employment matters
• Advising towns and landowners regarding development, zoning, and land use issues, including the proposed installation of cellular towers
• Representing media including the Boston Globe, USA Today, Court TV, the Associated Press, the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters, and St. Martin's Press
• Providing counsel to New Hampshire media, including the Concord Monitor, the Keene Sentinel, and WMUR-TV

Practice Areas

• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Commercial Litigation
• Domestic Relations
• Environmental
• Litigation
• Media and First Amendment
• Medical Malpractice and Risk Management
• Real Estate

Professional Activities

• Faculty at CLE programs, including the New Hampshire Bar Association programs Federal Practice Institute and Dealing with the Media
• Media representative on Supreme Court Committee drafting court rules for media access to trial courts in New Hampshire

Community Involvement

• Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, and since the 1980's has served in both state and local government
• Former Selectman and Chair of Board of Selectmen for the Town of Canterbury; served more than fifteen years as a member of the Canterbury Planning Board, including many years as Chairman
• Appointed in 2003 by Governor Benson to serve on the Commission to Study Professional Malpractice Claims. Gubernatorial appointments to various state commissions and boards.
• Former member, Board of Trustees, Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord
• Board of Trustees, The Granite State Conservation Voters Alliance
• Board of Overseers, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
• Current member, Conservation Commission, Town of Canterbury

Bar Admissions

Jim is admitted to practice in the state courts in New Hampshire, the Federal District Court in New Hampshire and the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Education

Dartmouth College, A.B., cum laude, Government, 1978 University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 1982

Publications

Co-authored with William L. Chapman, "Survey of New Hampshire Libel Law,” published as part of the Libel Defense Resource Center's 50-State Survey of Libel Law, 2004.

Co-authored with Jeffrey Spear, “The Reporter's Privilege in New Hampshire,” a chapter in The Reporter's Privilege Compendium: A Guide to State and Federal Law Concerning News Media Subpoenas, published by The Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, 2002.