Buoyed by Belonging

“The landscape where I grew up was both physically and metaphysically dominated by Salisbury Cathedral, which is over 400 feet tall,” he said. “Growing up there helped bring on my love of history.”

His first step along his path was earning degrees in French and Russian from the prestigious University of Cambridge. It was during his studies, while abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, that he met his wife Lydia, a local Cincinnatian. The two fell fast in love and she moved to England where they married. She embarked on a career in publishing while James took a position with an international investigations company as a multilingual corporate investigator.

In this role, he gained considerable experience working with law firms engaged in cross-border legal disputes or business transactions and traveled all over the world. James said he wouldn’t have guessed it, but he had a knack for seeing problems and helping people solve them, and this is what first set his sights on a law career.

“The investigation work was super interesting,” he said. “I was keen on seeing how the law impacted what we were investigating, and that’s when I started to see a future that involved law.”

Several years into their marriage, while still living in the UK, Lydia began to grow homesick. Around the same time, James began more seriously considering the idea of applying for law school.

They decided they would move to Cincinnati in 2019. Unfortunately, that’s when a worldwide pandemic hit. As borders were closing around them, the couple had to think fast.

James said though it could be taxing at times, Cambridge helped him come well-prepared for the first year’s workload, “It’s a different level of learning.”

While the academic rigor of law school was expected, what he didn’t expect was the tight-knit community he found.

“I owe a lot to the law school. It helped me be a part of the Cincinnati community, which if I hadn't gone to law school, I think would've been very difficult,” he said.

Throughout the past three years, James has been involved in various ways, including being elected secretary of the Student Bar Association, writing and editing for the University of Cincinnati Law Review, leading a structured study group for international LLM students, as well as joining Cincinnati Law’s LLM Welcoming Committee. He even co-founded his own student organization, the popular Board Game Society, with his friend Charles Rappe.

“The Board Game Society provides a different type of escape from just reading law school textbooks and doing assignments that can be quite heavy,” he said. “Playing board games, you can develop some of the same skills you use in law, including negotiation and improvisation whilst having fun.”

“Cincinnati Law is particularly good at forging connections,” he said, making sure to credit the law school for helping him network with the local law firm as a summer extern during his 2L year. “They help buoy you as you go forward.”

Ultimately, James hopes his work as an attorney will reflect his small-town values that brought him to law in the first place: helping others.

“I would say the thing that really motivates me is - and it is kind of corny - but it's helping people. Being there to assist people in whatever it is they're trying to do.”

Want to learn more about our students and their journey to (and through) law school? Read more stories on the "Meet Our Students" page. See yourself at Cincinnati Law!   

Author: Bachmeyer Press

Photographer: Asa Featherstone IV