James K.
Vines
(Jim)

Jim is a former United States Attorney and was a law clerk to the Chief Justice, United States Supreme Court, and to a senior United States District Judge. He served for eight years as head of EHS for a large global manufacturer.

Jim has also advised clients in EHS regulatory and transactional due diligence matters in the U.S. and across a large number of jurisdictions around the world. He frequently provides counsel on compliance with OSHA’s Process Safety Management, or PSM, standard and other process safety issues beyond the reach of the PSM regulations. From his work in the oil and gas industry, Jim has strong familiarity and experience with the industry’s operational integrity/operational excellence management systems (OIMS/OEMS) applied in upstream (offshore and onshore), midstream, downstream and marine operations.

Jim has counseled and represented clients in litigation related to most of the major federal environmental laws and many counterpart state laws. Over the course of his career, he has represented clients at over 400 federal CERCLA (Superfund), RCRA Corrective Action and state law regulated environmental cleanup sites.

As a United States Attorney, Jim prosecuted federal environmental crimes and served as a member of the Attorney General’s Environmental Issues Subcommittee, dealing with national environmental prosecutorial initiatives.