Jim completed degrees in Economics ( majoring in Economics and Accounting) and Law at Monash University after obtaining a Commonwealth Scholarship. Jim was admitted to practice in 1976 and signed the Bar Roll in 1979 where he has practised ever since.

Jim is a specialist in Commercial Law with a particular expertise in Building and Construction Law and Property Law.He has been actively involved in the property,building and construction industries for over 20 years. He is a registered building practitioner - domestic and general construction.

Jim has since 1991 specialised in dispute resolution.He is accredited as an advanced mediator with LEADR (Lawyers Engaged in Alternative Dispute Resolution) and is on the Supreme and County Court panels of mediators.

He has been appointed a mediator on several national panels including the IOOF Building Society, Law Cover and the Franchising Code Council. He has also been appointed a mediator by the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal [VCAT] and by the NSW Rural Assistance Authority as a Farm Debt Mediator.

He regularly mediates across a broad spectrum of issues and matters.

Jim enhances his skills by regularly attending seminars, workshops, and conferences on advanced mediation techniques locally, interstate and overseas. He also regularly conducts training and coaching in mediation for those wishing to learn or improve their skills in mediation. He has designed and presented workshops/seminars aimed at assisting parties better understand how to prepare for and utilise ADR and has coached and trained others in ADR including Bond University, Victorian Bar, LEADR, The Leo Cussen Institute, The Institute of Arbitrators Australia, Deakin and Latrobe Universities.

Jim has prepared a report to the Victorian Justice Dept. titled "The Use of Mediation in the Resolving of Disputes by the Proposed Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal." VCAT deals with a very wide range of civil and administrative disputes. A significant proportion of those disputes involve small business. The report, which was substantially adopted in legislation deals specifically with various ADR models for resolution of disputes.

Jim sees his role as a mediator, as facilitating a problem solving process between the parties, rather than imposing solutions or outcomes on the parties.

He is an executive member of the LEADR Victorian Chapter, a member of the Victorian Bar Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee and a member of the Building Dispute Practitioner Society Executive Committee

Jim is a graded arbitrator and a member of the Institute of Arbitrators Australia.

Jim has a keen interest in education. He is the President of a non-Government School. Through this association he has regularly made submissions to the Government including Ministers of the Crown, and has been involved in a range of industrial relations and best practice management issues.