Jim is a principal in the firm's Health Law Group. His practice is focused on representation of start-up and emerging health care services, practice management and technology companies and on representation of non-institutional health care providers, including physicians and physician organizations. Jim has significant experience in counseling health care industry clients on all aspects of privacy issues, including state laws and the HIPAA Privacy standards. Jim's representation of his clients includes general corporate and mergers and acquisitions matters as well as contracting, joint venturing/corporate partnering, regulatory compliance, privacy issues and strategic advice. In addition, Jim has considerable experience representing national trade or professional associations; he currently serves as general counsel to the national trade association of companies in the medical billing field and to a national association of specialty physician practice managers.

In 2006, Governor Robert Ehrlich appointed Jim to the Task Force to Study Electronic Health Records (EMR), a blue ribbon panel reporting directly to the Maryland legislature on Electronic Health Records, ePrescribing, and Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs). Jim was subsequently designated as the lead person for the EMR working group within the Task Force.

Jim was a member of the firm from 1979 to 1989. In 1999, he returned to Ober|Kaler after practicing health care law in Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here he gained significant experience in the representation of public and near public health care companies as a partner in Cooley Godward, a 600+ attorney firm with offices nationwide.

Jim was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Health Lawyers Association and its predecessor entity from 1993 to 1999. He is a frequent lecturer on health care regulatory topics. Jim has served as an associate member of the faculty of Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught Negotiation Skills in the University's MBA program. He has published numerous articles on health care topics and is the author of "Medicare Part B Reimbursement for Physicians" in the Clark Boardman treatise "Health Law Practice Guide" and "Managed Care and Capitation Contracting," a book published by the American Society of Internal Medicine.

Court of Appeals of California

Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia

Court of Appeals of Maryland

Court of Appeals of New York

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Supreme Court of Oregon

University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., 1974

University of Minnesota, B.A., 1970

American Bar Association

American Health Lawyers Association

Board of Directors, 1993-1999

Bar Association of Baltimore City

Health Information Management Manual, 3rd Edition

Editorial Board

Maryland State Bar Association

Selected by Nightingale's Healthcare News as one of the Outstanding Physician Practice Lawyers for 2006

Co-author with William E. Berlin and Christi J. Braun, "Two Recent Decisions Regarding Antitrust and IPA Contracting: Further Guidance for Radiology Practices or Further Questions?" RBMA Bulletin, 2006

Co-author with Robert E. Mazer, "The Office of the Inspector General Takes Another Look at Hospital-based Physicians and Hospital Requests for Free Services," RBMA Bulletin, 2005

Co-author with E. Scott Johnson, "Technology Agreements: HIPAA Negotiation Points for Software Licenses," RBMA Bulletin, 2002

Co-author with Howard L. Sollins, "HIPAA Alert: Its April 14th, 2003! Do You Know Where Your 'PHI' Is?" The Aegis Report, 2002

Author, "Government Gives Qualified Blessing to Physician Owned Ambulatory Surgical Centers," Strategic Orthopedics, 1998

Author, "Medicare Intensifies Scrutiny of Billing and Medical Operations," American College of Radiology Journal, 1998

Author, "Medicare Part B Payment for Physician Services," a chapter in the Health Law Practice Guide, Clark Boardman Callaghan (revised annually)

Lecturer, "Medicare Part B Issues in Health Care Transactions," 1998

Lecturer, "Health Care Fraud and Abuse: Compliance and Enforcement-Physician Industry," 1998

Lecturer, "Compliance Plans and Issues for Non-Institutional Providers," 1998

Lecturer, "Public Physician Practice Management Companies: The Next Generation," 1998

Lecturer, "Structuring a Start-Up Health Care Company," 1998

Lecturer, "Payment and Carrier Issues for Physicians" and "Case Study on Development of Physician Networks," 1998

Lecturer, "Taking a Health Care Company Public," 1997

Author, "Internists' Guide to Managed Care and Capitation Rates," American Society of Internal Medicine, 1995