• Creditor Bankruptcy
• Financial Transactions and Litigation
• Mineral Developer-Surface Owner Transactions and Litigation
• Corporate and Financing Opinions
• Real Estate Transactions and Financings
• Construction Contracts and Litigation

EXPERIENCE
After a 13-year career as a commercial banker, Jim attended law school and began practicing law in 1988 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

In his financial practice, Jim represents lenders in large commercial and real estate financing transactions, non-judicial real estate foreclosures, collection litigation, state and federal receiverships and bankruptcy matters.  Jim represented a client in a breach of contract action in the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming in which the court entered a $14,000,000+ judgment in favor of the client at the conclusion of a one week bench trial.

He represents both lenders and borrowers by rendering financing opinions for energy, real estate and business financings of all types, including equipment leasing, oil and gas, coal, and wind power projects.

Jim assists corporate, partnership and LLC clients with mergers, acquisitions and reorganizations, as well as continuations into and transfers out of Wyoming. These transactions include rendering local counsel opinions in large transactions.

Jim has extensive experience in assisting energy clients with surface owner agreements and dispute resolution. He drafts surface use agreements and litigates condemnation and injunctive actions to obtain the right to develop minerals. Jim assisted a pipeline client in obtaining a complete defense judgment in a breach of a gas purchase agreement litigated in Wyoming State Court in a week long bench trial.

Jim drafts and evaluates construction contracts and litigates commercial construction lien disputes and disputes arising from oil and gas operations. Jim has extensive experience in resolving mechanics’ and oil and gas lien claims.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Member, American Bar Association, Business Law Section
• Member, Wyoming Bar Association
• Member, Ewing T. Kerr American Inns of Court
• Member, Past Board Member and President, Wyoming Bar Foundation
• Chambers USA 2008 - 2012:  Corporate/Mergers & Acquisitions
• Best Lawyers in America 2008-2012: Bankruptcy and Creditor Rights Law 

EDUCATION

• University of Wyoming Law School (J.D. 1988, with Honors, Order of the Coif)
• University of Colorado (B.S. 1972, Finance)

PUBLICATIONS

• The Wyoming Law of Mortgages (1993), Editor
• Nonconsensual Liens Under Title 29, Wyoming Lawyer, June 2008
• Co-author, ABA State-by-State Guide to Construction and Design Law (2008 Second Edition), Wyoming Chapter