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 the 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.

Jim is a fellow of The Pepper Center for Public Service. The Pepper Center draws on the talents of the firm’s retired partners and senior attorneys to wrestle with tough problems facing our communities. Through the center, these attorneys study, analyze, and work to resolve problems that affect the lives of people in our communities.

• Represented a west coast-based private equity fund in the sale of its optical imaging company and internet mediation company. The buyers included a Swedish-based company and a public company in a competitive auction.
• Represented an investment pool in the sale of its litigation finance business to a consortium of Canadian, U.S., and French private equity funds.
• Represented a U.S.-based private equity fund in numerous platform and add-on investments in a wide range of industries, including software, outsourcing, and IT infrastructure transactions.
• Represented a major U.S. private equity group in the acquisition of several businesses through the bankruptcy process.
• Represented a UK-based professional services firm management team and private equity fund partner in the leveraged recapitalization of 58 affiliated businesses located in 32 countries to a second private equity fund.
• Represented a U.S. private equity fund in the acquisition of a series of engineering companies.
• Represented a group of hedge funds in take-over and restructuring transactions involving business process outsourcing.
• Represented an Indian industrial concern in its initial public offering and placement on the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges.
• Represented a Channel Island-based trust in connection with multiple-control investments of technology and software businesses throughout the U.S., Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and England.
• Represented a Florida-based private equity group in connection with several platform and add-on investments in the consumer electronics business and promotional products business.
• Represented a Florida-based private equity fund in connection with the acquisition of a major health and fitness business.
• Represented a North Carolina-based business services company in connection with the merger with a Paris-based public business services company.
• Represented a U.K. health care company in connection with the sale of a major medical products group to a Denmark-based health care company.
• Represented a French-based defense electronics business in various U.S. acquisitions and dispositions of U.S. subsidiaries.
• Represented a French avionics company in joint ventures with a California-based aerospace company.
• Represented a U.S. company in the formation of an EC-based technology joint venture with a French utility.
• Represented a UK-based consumer products company in connection with the acquisition of a U.S. medical products business.
• Represented a UK-based, London Stock Exchange-listed health care company in connection with a merger with another London Stock Exchange-listed consumer and health care company.
• Represented a UK-based private equity fund in connection with the acquisition of an Italian electronics company by a Florida-based portfolio company.
• Represented a U.S.-based computer company in connection with its acquisition by a major French computer company.
• Represented a Los Angeles-based private equity group in connection with its disposition of a California-based business services company to a Chicago-based private equity fund.

• Awarded the Legion of Honor at the rank of Chevalier by the Republic of France (2025)
• Super Lawyers: New York – Corporate (2004, 2006, 2010, 2012-2018, 2020-2023)
• Chambers USA: “Recognized Practitioner” (2018-2019)
• India Business Law Journal A-List (2024)
• Recipient of Medal for Distinguished Achievement by the American Society of the French Legion of Honor (2021)
• Selected as Lawyer of the Year in the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) New York Chapter’s 5th Annual Champion’s Awards (2015)