James Shepherd is an accomplished attorney with a diverse background that uniquely positions him to provide exceptional legal counsel. Jim has 28 years’ legal experience and is AV-rated ‘Preeminent’ by Martindale-Hubbell. He serves on the Boards of the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum and the Bankruptcy Law section of the Contra Costa Bar Association and is a past member of the Bench-Bar Liaison Committee of the Northern District of California. He regularly appears in state and federal bankruptcy courts in Oakland, Martinez, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Rosa, and other venues. Before establishing his own firm in 2009, Jim clerked for a bankruptcy judge in Michigan (1995-1997) and was a Trial Attorney with the US Department of Justice (US Trustee Program) in San Francisco (2006-2008). He gained extensive consumer and business bankruptcy, litigation, real estate, and transactional experience in large-firm private practice (1997-2006).
Prior to attending law school at Indiana University-Bloomington (J.D. cum laude, 1995), he was a commercial fisherman based in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, working on a trawler in the Bering Sea.
Jim lives with his family in the East Bay. He is active in youth sports and enjoys running and hiking, and he regularly swims in the invigorating waters of San Francisco Bay with friends at the South End Rowing Club.