Jim is the second of six children (five boys, one girl) born into an Irish Catholic family living in a working-class neighborhood in Massachusetts. Jim was 15 years old when his parents divorced, and he moved with his mother and siblings to Atlanta, Georgia. Because his mother’s poor health prevented her from working, and because his father struggled with alcoholism most of his life, he seldom worked or paid child support, Jim took jobs after school and on weekends to help support the family. Upon graduation from high school, Jim worked in construction including working as a ditch-digger, dry-wall hanger, framer, rough carpenter, as well as doing other manual labor, for the going rate of $3.00 an hour.
After two years working in construction, Jim enlisted in the US Navy and volunteered to be a torpedoman on a nuclear powered fast attack submarine. After boot camp and additional training, Jim was assigned to the USS Tautog (SSN 639), home-ported at the submarine base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Jim did well as a sailor, and his solid work and leadership led to his rapid advancement through the enlisted ranks, going from Recruit (E-1) at the time of his enlistment, to Torpedoman 2nd Class (E-5), at the time of his discharge from active duty, four years later. While onboard Tautog, Jim was made the lead torpedoman, qualified as expert with small arms, and was trained as a Navy SCUBA diver. Jim’s submarine voyages took him to many places across the Pacific Ocean, including Guam, Hong Kong, Kenya (Africa), the Philippines, and South Korea. These experiences exposed Jim to different cultures, governments, languages, religions, and, of course, people. Accordingly, Jim uses his life’s experiences to further grow and strengthen his law practice by representing anyone who has been injured by another person’s negligence, without regard to culture, language, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
