As a co-founder for his own real estate development company, Jim understands firsthand how to start and manage a company, including partnership negotiations, management of service providers and other external relationships, employment and compliance matters, general contracting and corporate compliance, and day-to-day operations.

Jim has also managed multi-million dollar real estate development projects, working with municipal governments, architects, general contractors, environmental consultants, brokers, and other crucial members of a real estate development project’s ecosystem.  He appreciates the time pressures and value that goes into running a business and the costs that are associated with it.

In addition to starting and running a business, Jim has extensive experience representing local, national and international clients in all facets of real estate, including purchase and sale of property, condominiums, obtaining state and local zoning/permitting approvals, leasing, joint venture development agreements, construction contracts, and commercial and private financing. Jim has negotiated and managed relationships with high-net worth individuals, family offices, and co-development companies for his company and clients in the real estate development business.

Awards & Honors

  • Named “Exclusive Featured Attorney” Representing Boston Premier Real Estate Lawyers 2022-2023.
  • Named a “Super Lawyers New England Rising Star” for Real Estate by Thomson Reuters, 2013-2021.
  • Named a “Super Lawyers New England” for Real Estate by Thomson Reuters, 2022.
  • Named a “Top Lawyer” by Boston Magazine, 2021-2023.
  • Named a “Boston Rising Star” by National Law Journal, 2015.

Representative Matters

  • Represented a regional developer in the development, management and sale of Brunswick Station in Brunswick, Maine, which included mixed use of apartments, offices, and retail/restaurants.
  • Represented a regional bank in the $40 million dollar acquisition financing for a prominent building in Chinatown, Boston.
  • Represented Emerald Place Development Company in the $76 million dollar sale of a 238-unit apartment building in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.
  • Represented Navem West Broadway in the development, construction, conversion to condominium, and sale of a 44-unit condominium building in South Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Represented a large regional bank in the $13 million dollar refinancing of apartment buildings in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  • Represented a Chinese investor in a joint venture with a local developer for the acquisition and development of a $120 million mixed use development in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
  • Represented a joint venture development of 16 condominium units in South Boston.
  • Represented a local developer in their $7 million dollar acquisition of a ground lease development in Quincy, Massachusetts.
  • Represented a regional developer in their $10 million sale of a light industrial property in Portland, Maine.
  • Represented a restaurant tenant with a complex lease regarding a boutique hotel located in downtown Boston.

Articles & Talks

Education

  • Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 2007; Executive Editor, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics.
  • Boston University, B.A., cum laude, 2004

Bar Admissions

  • Massachusetts

Court Admissions

  • District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Outside the Office

  • Jim lived in Beijing, China, where he learned to speak Mandarin Chinese and worked for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
  • Jim lives with his wife and two boys in Canton, Massachusetts. He regularly takes his family camping in the summer and skiing in the winter.