Jim is a past chair of the Insurance Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. He was recently elected to membership in the American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel (ACCEC), a privilege bestowed on less than 250 attorneys nationwide. Jim has also been selected by his peers every year since 2006 for inclusion in the Texas Super Lawyers rankings in the area of insurance coverage, and recognized for the 13th consecutive year as one of the nation’s top insurance coverage lawyers by Chambers USA. In 2017, Chambers USA awarded him a top ranking of “Band 1” for Insurance in Texas. He has also been selected for inclusion in the Who’s Who Legal’s Insurance and Reinsurance and The Best Lawyers in America©.

Jim has previously served as co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee’s Annual Conference, as well as the ABA’s Emerging Insurance Coverage Issues and Products Liability Insurance Coverage subcommittees. He also served as the course director for the 2014 State Bar of Texas Advanced Insurance Law Course. He is a former chair of the Houston Bar Association’s Historical and Professionalism committees, and was presented with President’s Awards in 2010 and 2013 in recognition of his service on those committees. Jim also received the prestigious Jim D. Bowmer Professionalism Award from the College of the State Bar of Texas in 2012.

Jim served as a contributing editor for the Lexis/Nexis Texas Annotated Insurance Code from 2006 to 2014. He has co-authored a chapter on handling complex insurance coverage matters in Inside The Minds: Legal Strategies For The Insurance Industry, published by Aspatore Books. Jim has also authored insurance coverage articles for the Journal of Texas Insurance Law, the University of Houston Int'l Law Journal, and the Michigan Bar Journal.