Jim White: Panning for gold and Impossible Cases
- Written by Bob Friedman
- Photographs by Catherine Davis
Jim White, an attorney in Chapel Hill, passes by a large picture of a scene taken from “The Verdict”, a 1982 film starring Paul Newman. He said that he chose a scene of this film to decorate his lobby instead of corporate art.
Newman’s lawyer character is intriguing. White said that he is an alcoholic who takes a hopeless lawsuit to court against a hospital, and then wins a big verdict.
“I’m sure I could have picked another picture.” Newman’s complex character has many flaws and is not liked by all. In the end, he is a role-model – someone who is willing to face big issues even when the odds are against them. When I think about it, I remember that the biggest obstacles are often within ourselves.
He added, “A good thing to remember when I enter the office.”
“I look at it, and I remember that sometimes our biggest obstacles are within us.”
Financial Sophistication
White has built a niche practice in which he handles complex cases involving finance, fraud, and unfair business practices. Before attending Duke University School of Law, White was a research consultant for McKinsey & Company. He combines his business and banking experience into his varied legal practice.
White has taken on cases where he is the plaintiff against banks. He says that “large law firms often have conflicts of interest in these cases.” In a number of cases, people and companies are suing corporations who have been accused of bad behavior. “I realized that I could make money by helping people and using my knowledge of finance. It’s like being a personal lawyer who also deals with financial issues. “Many personal injury lawyers have excellent trial skills, but lack the financial sophistication needed to handle cases such as these.”
He says that the rigor of management consulting has influenced the way he approaches the law. In management consulting, we looked at business problems to find creative solutions. Lawyers who specialize in bankruptcy and litigation often deal with the same problems as management consultants, but do so when their clients face a crisis. It’s like the difference between a doctor in an ER and a general practitioner. In consulting, I use the same rigor in analyzing businesses that I used in bankruptcy and litigation. My job in these situations is to keep patients alive, get them through the crisis and to a successful outcome.
White deliberately keeps his firm small. He believes he can compete effectively with larger firms by forming partnerships and working with attorneys with complementary practices. In 2020, for example, he teamed with Dhamian Blu, a Raleigh lawyer who was named the top antitrust attorney in the State by the Legal Elite. The two took a case of bid-rigging under the Federal Sherman Act before a federal juror.
Bloomberg Law News reported that “Estates LLC maintained a database of NC foreclosure properties.” The lawsuit alleged that Estates members were involved in a complex plan to manipulate foreclosure auctions. This included ‘backing off’ when another member placed the first bid. The suit accused Estates members of a complex scheme to manipulate foreclosure auctions by strategically abstaining from out bidding one another on residential properties in foreclosure, including ‘backing down’ if another member bid first.
Greenboro jury awarded homeowners almost $2 million as damages and attorneys’ fees.
“I think about the cases differently. Although I am not an antitrust lawyer, it looked like this case was rigged. My background allows me to make complicated cases more understandable for a jury. Dhamian brought a strong and thorough legal mind, along with his Sherman Act expertise. “We made a great pair.”
Panning for gold
Business development for me is like panning for gold. White explained that she keeps her eye on the difficult case or the impossible case. Someone will send me an unusual case that the other attorney doesn’t understand. Even though there is no doubt that someone has suffered a serious injury, the legal claim may not be obvious. There’s no doubt that there is a case, I can smell it. It’s hard to find the right angle, but I am willing to put in the effort to do so. Everyone is entitled to strong, good representation. But sometimes, you have to work hard to find the right approach.
White represents 21 victims of a Halifax County car dealer. In the complaint, it is noted that “their stories are similar – they all looked for weaknesses and found a way to make money.” The defendants would charge more than the work was worth, they would work without giving estimates and ignore the ones they gave. They would repeatedly charge for work that was never authorized. They would falsely state that the work had been done.
They took advantage of the consumers who trusted them with their vehicles by holding these vehicles hostage, and forcing customers to pay exorbitant fees to retrieve their vehicles.
White was able get prejudgment attachement in the pending lawsuit, an unusual remedy which means that assets worth over one million dollars of the defendants will be frozen until the case is resolved.
When I consider my cases, it is less about representing little guys than it is about representing powerless guys. “And that often involves representing the little guys.”
“When I think of my cases, I’m less interested in representing the little guy and more concerned with representing the powerless person.”
Always on His Mind
White was born on Staten Island in New York to a mother who stayed at home and a dad who drove for UPS. “I didn’t have much growing up, and I certainly remember times when my parents appeared powerless. In my own life, there have been moments when I’ve felt powerless. “For me, it’s about doing the right thing by them and redressing an imbalance.”
When he graduated St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD he had a career in law in the backburner, but put it off.
White’s first position after college was that of a sales manager at an international publishing house. Then, White worked as a literary agency, before moving into management consulting. She first worked for a firm that specialized on media, and later did research for McKinsey.
White worked in Los Angeles for McKinsey and wrote “spec” scripts while there. White says that “nothing I ever wrote made it to screen.” Writing screenplays taught me to write a tight story. We live in a story-filled world. A trial is a story. It’s a story which helps us to make sense of the world.
“Woody Allen once said that the quality of people who do not return your calls will tell you how successful you are. The producer of a TV show told me that if the deal didn’t work out, he would jump off the next building. Needless to say the show never aired. So much for Hollywood’s happy ending.
White did not quit his day job. He could have stayed in management consulting. “But I wanted to make an impact,” he said. “And law always seemed to me to be the place to achieve that.”
Mobile Home Case
White, who had just graduated from Duke Law School with a Juris Doctorate, worked at an Am Law 200 firm in Durham where he was given a pro bono legal case to handle in 2003.
The client of his was a woman to whom a mobile house had been sold. She was told by the salesperson that her lot next to her mother’s house would perc, and she could live on it. It turned out that the Countydidn’t perc and there wasn’t city water. The salesperson was aware of this but still sold her the house. White recalled that she had signed a loan agreement and continued to pay for a home she couldn’t live in. “Even though it was only a matter of weeks since I became a lawyer, I kept pushing.” The settlement amount was not large in the world of litigation (high five-figure figures), but was significant for my client.
“That first case hooked me. There is something thrilling about pressing down your thumb on the scales and helping someone else who may be powerless to get a fair outcome. Bankruptcy also has an appeal. The debtor can force creditors to negotiate a deal, if they would otherwise have a hard time.
He added, “We know when something just isn’t right.” The question is, what are you going to do? A good lawyer will be able to look at chaos, and find a reason for action and bring a lawsuit. There is often not much more to it than the feeling that there is something wrong and that there must be some way to fix it.
“There is something thrilling about pressing down your thumb on the scales and helping someone else who may be powerless to get a fair outcome.”
White gave this example.
“A woman was about to lose her home. She was told she could save her house from foreclosure by relying on a generous lender. She was tricked to deed her home to the “lender” in exchange for a leased option, under which she could lease her home and then have the option to purchase her own house for more than twice the original loan amount,” recalled White.
“It was a bit shady, but I wasn’t sure if she could recover her home through a claim. There is a law called the Home Foreclosure Rescue Scam that allows a claim to be filed for this scam. It’s not rocket-science,” said White. “You need to dig deeper when you suspect something is wrong to figure out the best way to deal with it.”
J.C. White Law Group PLLC
Practice Areas
- Complex Litigation
- Financial & Bankruptcy Litigation
- Small Business Debtor Bankruptcy
- Mediation
Education
- Duke University School of Law, Juris Doctor
- Master of Arts in Public Policy at Duke University
- Bachelor’s of Arts, St. John’s College
Certifications
- Board Certified Specialists in Business Bankruptcy Law
- NCDRC Certified Mediator
Honors
- North Carolina Super Lawyers, General Litigation
- Best Lawyers in America – Bankruptcy
- Legal Elite, Bankruptcy and Business North Carolina
- Leaders in Law: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
- Martindale-Hubbell
- Pro Bono Impact Award, Business Leader Media
- Pro Bono attorney of the year, Legal Aid of North Carolina Durham County
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