Jim Jenkins is a partner with the Atlanta law firm of Maloy Jenkins Parker, and a founding member of Maloy & Jenkins in 1987. He has over 36 years of experience in criminal trials and appeals. Jim's practice concentrates on federal complex white collar investigations, trials and appeals, as well as post-conviction collateral litigation. With his recent admission to practice in the State of Colorado and the opening of an office in Boulder, Colorado, Jim has become actively involved in representation of clients in Colorado and the Tenth Circuit.

Jim has defended clients ranging from Fortune 500 CEOs to death row inmates in state and federal courts throughout the country at all stages of the criminal process, including pretrial investigation, trial, appellate and post conviction litigation. Jim's commitment to pro bono death penalty litigation began with his first death penalty jury trial in 1978.This commitment continues through his current representation of a Georgia death row inmate, a case he has been litigating since 1989, as well as being recently appointed to the post-conviction team representing one of three men on death row in Colorado. Jim was on the team of Innocence Project lawyers that freed Calvin Johnson in 1999, after he served nearly sixteen years in prison for a rape that he did not commit. After his release, Jim won $500,000 for Calvin Johnson from the State of Georgia for his wrongful incarceration. During the Boulder, Colorado, investigation into the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, Jim represented all three Ramsey children, including during their testimony before the grand jury. The grand jury investigation continued for thirteen months before deciding return no indictments in 1999. In 2004-2005, Jim was part of the team that obtained an acquittal for HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in Birmingham, Alabama, and continues to fight his client's subsequent conviction in Montgomery, Alabama relating to an issue-advocacy campaign contribution to former Governor Donald Siegelman, who was also convicted.

For the past decade, Jim has concentrated on an extensive number of complex federal appeals, primarily in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In coordination with the entire firm, Jim recently obtained the reversal of extensive tax fraud charges by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Beginning in 2004 with the successful defense of Richard Scrushy, Jim has refined a novel area of practice coordinating litigation support for trial teams in complex federal criminal prosecutions. Jim uses his trial and appellate experience to coordinate motions practice, tactical litigation consultation, mid-trial legal research and briefing, review and analysis of daily transcripts, and effective issue preservation in the event of appeal.

Jim has not hesitated to challenge entrenched authority when it is in the interest of his clients. In 2004, he won habeas corpus relief granting a new trial and dismissal of all charges for two young men in Glynn County, Georgia, after the recusal of the judge presiding over that county's drug court program. These cases eventually led to an hour-long investigative report by NPR journalist Ira Glass on This American Life in March of 2011("Very Tough Love"). In November of 2011, the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission filed a 12-count complaint against the judge, including an allegation based on the treatment of Jim's client and other clients whose cases were highlighted in the in the This American Life report. The judge submitted her resignation on December 19, 2010.

Building on his work with leading Colorado lawyers during the Ramsey investigation in 1997 and his long ties to Colorado for recreational purposes, in 2010 Jim opened a satellite office in Boulder, Colorado. One of his initial cases working with Colorado lawyers ended in the dismissal of all charges against an Aspen, Colorado building inspector charged with negligent homicide in the carbon monoxide deaths of a family of four.

Jim has taught law students and practicing lawyers for well over two decades. In 1985, he joined the faculty of the prestigious National Criminal Defense College, where he continues to teach each year. From 1990 until 2005, Jim was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgia State University, where he taught Advanced Criminal Litigation. Jim has played a central role in the Bill Daniel Trial Advocacy Program run by the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers since its creation in 1999, teaching and lecturing in each year's program. For 30 years, Jim has lectured to lawyers' groups throughout the country on diverse topics relating to trial and appellate advocacy. Most recently, Jim was invited by the Alaska Public Defender Agency to give a half-day presentation on presenting expert testimony ("A Sword and a Shield") and attacking the prosecution's expert witnesses ("Waking the Gatekeeper").

Jim served two terms on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, from 1987 to 1993. In 1993 he was elected a Fellow in the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, and currently serves on the Board of Governors of that organization. Jim has been a Master in the Joseph Henry Lumpkin American Inn of Court since 1996. In 1991, Jim created the Lawyers Assistance Committee for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which he chaired for nine years and received a President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Jim has also been selected as a Georgia SuperLawyer every year since 2006 in White Collar Defense and Appellate Practice.

Jim was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1949. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1971, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1975, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif.

Complex criminal trials and appeals; litigation support.

State Bar of Georgia (1975); State Bar of Colorado (2010); United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (1975), Middle District of Georgia (1986) and Southern District of Georgia (1984); United States District Court for the District of Colorado (2011); United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1981), Fourth Circuit (1979), Eleventh Circuit (1981), and Tenth Circuit (2011); United States Supreme Court (1980)

National Criminal Defense College (1985 to present)

Adjunct Professor, Georgia State University Law School (1990-2005)

Bill Daniel Trial Advocacy Program (1999 to present)