James F. Neale Partner

His first-chair trial experience includes personal injury, product liability, nuisance, advertising, premises liability, transportation, insurance coverage, land valuation, indemnity, and contract cases. He has taken dozens of cases to verdict in both state and federal courts.

Much of Jim’s current work focuses on defending clients in food-related litigation, including foodborne illness cases and consumer class action labeling claims, as well as counseling food companies on regulatory compliance and litigation avoidance. Jim regularly advises manufacturers, distributors and retailers on matters related to Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Tax and Trade Bureau compliance. He served as lead counsel for a Fortune 100 food manufacturer in an international recall that led to multidistrict litigation, class actions, and personal injury cases across the country, successfully trying two high-profile cases to verdict.

Jim has also defended clients in a variety of other arenas, including high-exposure cases before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and numerous arbitration panels. He has briefed and argued appeals to the Virginia Supreme Court, the California Court of Appeals and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and 11th Circuit.

Jim is frequently quoted by the media on the topic of food safety and has written extensively on the topic. He is the co-author of “Food Safety Law,” published by American Lawyer Media. He is a member of the faculty of the National Trial Advocacy College at the University of Virginia.

From 1990 to 1995, Jim served as an Airborne Ranger and Light Infantry Platoon Leader in the U.S. Army and was awarded a Ranger Tab, Senior Parachutist’s Badge, Air Assault Badge and Expert Infantryman’s Badge. Following law school, Jim served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard L. Williams, Senior U.S. District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Jim is also active in pro bono matters, frequently teaming with the University of Virginia’s Innocence Project Clinic, challenging wrongful convictions around Virginia. Jim has recently participated in cases that changed Virginia’s statute of limitation on habeas claims, obtained habeas relief overturning a twenty-two-year-old murder conviction obtained by a crooked cop, and successfully advocated for a bill obtaining compensation for the estate of a man wrongfully convicted for a rape he did not commit.

Elected as a Virginia Law Fellow in 2014 and an ABA Law Fellow in 2015, for several years Jim has been singled out by BTI Consulting Group as a Client Service All Star in product liability. While earning his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, he won the John Kingdon Award for Outstanding Oral and Written Advocacy and the Stephen P. Traynor Award for Outstanding Appellate Advocacy. He was also named the winner and outstanding oralist in the William M. Lile Moot Court Competition.