Jim focuses his practice on domestic and international transactions and corporate finance. He advises private equity funds and corporations pursuing growth in the U.S. and throughout the world, including Europe, Latin America and Asia. His clients are involved in a variety of sectors and subsectors such as fintech, software, software-enabled services, health care and life sciences, business services, industrial, and manufacturing.
Jim structures and negotiates major transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, platform and follow-on acquisitions; distressed buyouts, corporate carve-outs and restructurings. He represents U.S.-based companies in transactions throughout the world, and is particularly experienced in the United Kingdom, Europe, India and China. Companies based in Europe, India, South America and Asia rely on Jim’s guidance through mergers and acquisitions, financing and licensing transactions with domestic implications. He also works with management-led groups in the acquisition of businesses from divesting corporations.
Jim also advises corporations and financial institutions on all aspects of domestic and international public offerings and other capital markets transactions. He represents domestic and foreign issuers in public offerings in U.S. and foreign listings, venture and mezzanine capital raising, and traditional bank financing transactions. His clients also include issuers and bondholder groups in debt restructuring, recapitalization and work-outs. Jim regularly serves as international legal counsel to issuers and underwriters on off-shore public offerings in India, the United Kingdom and Europe.
Jim is a leader in the international business and legal communities, and a well-known advocate for expanding cross-border economic ties. He is founder and president of the European American Chamber of Commerce in New York and co-founder of its Paris-based chapter. He has served as president of the Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Commission of the Union Internationale des Avocats / International Association of Lawyers (UIA) since 2016.
Jim has decades of experience as a member of the board of directors of numerous companies, including several with international operations. He is president and a board member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, and is active in the Association for Corporate Growth, whose New York chapter named Jim “Lawyer of the Year” in 2015.
Long active in charitable and community matters, Jim is also founder and chairman of the board of the American Battle Monuments Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to augment and expand the work of the American Battle Monuments Commission, an independent U.S. agency that operates 26 cemeteries and 29 memorials, monuments and markers in 16 countries commemorating the U.S. armed forces.
ACTIVITIES/HONORS
ACTIVITIES
NCO PORTFOLIO
Board member, NCO Portfolio, Inc. (2001–2004)
LIBERTY TECHNOLOGIES
Board member, Liberty Technologies, Inc. (1994–1999)
LIBERTY M.P.
Board member, Liberty M.P. S.A.S. (a French-based joint venture company)
BONNEY FORGE CORPORATION
Board member, Bonney Forge Corporation
CEDAR INVESTMENTS
Board member, Cedar Investments, Inc.
CFM PARTNERS
Board member, CFM Partners, Inc. (2000–present)
SEPRO HEALTHCARE
Board member, SePro Healthcare, Inc.
SEPRO (DELAWARE)
Board member, SePro (Delaware) Inc.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATION DIRECTORS
President and board member, National Association of Corporation Directors (2003–present)
EUROPEAN AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
President and board member, European American Chamber of Commerce – New York
CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE FRANCO-AMERICAIN
Director, Chambre de Commerce Franco-Americain
INSTITUTE OF FRENCH CULTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Director, Institute of French Culture at the University of Pennsylvania
EUROPEAN-AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE – PARIS
Director, European-American Chamber of Commerce – Paris
CHARITABLE INVOLVEMENT
Charitable involvement includes directorships and advisory roles with the Metropolitan Mission Board of the Presbytery, Head Start, Inc., the United States Tennis Association, Tennis Patrons Foundation, Lehigh University and the Foundation for Teaching Economics
UNION INTERNATIONALE DES AVOCATS / INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LAWYERS
President, Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Commission of the Union Internationale des Avocats / International Association of Lawyers (UIA) (2016-Present)
AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENT FOUNDATION
Chairman of the board of the nonprofit foundation that supports the American Battle Monuments Commission, the U.S. agency that operates 26 cemeteries and 29 memorials, monuments and markers in 16 countries commemorating the U.S. armed forces, including the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
HONORS
SUPER LAWYERS
Selected for inclusion on the 2012-18 New York-Metro Super Lawyers lists CHAMBERS USA
Recognized Practitioner
ASSOCIATION FOR CORPORATE GROWTH
Selected as Lawyer of the Year in the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) New York Chapter’s 5th Annual Champion’s Awards (2015)
EDUCATION
• J.D., Delaware Law School (Now Widener University School of Law), 1985
• M.B.A., Fairleigh Dickinson University at Madison, 1981
• B.S., Lehigh University, 1977
BAR ADMISSIONS
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• New Jersey
COURT ADMISSIONS
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania