James “Jim” H. Gibson is Co-Founder and Partner at Gibson Law Partners, LLC, located in Lafayette, Louisiana. In 2016, Jim was inducted as a Fellow in The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), which is an invitation only fellowship of exceptional trial lawyers from the United States and Canada. Membership is limited to 1% of the total membership of each state’s practicing attorneys. Per the mission statement on the website of The American College of Trial Lawyers, the following standards are applied when considering fellowship awards:
“The College thoroughly investigates each nominee for admission and selects only those who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism and collegiality. The College maintains and seeks to improve the standards of trial practice, professionalism, ethics, and the admission of justice through education and public statements on important legal issues relating to its mission. The College strongly supports the independence of the judiciary, trial by jury, respect for the rule of law, access to justice, and fair and just representation of all parties to legal proceedings.” The American College of Trial Lawyers
To be invited to become a Fellow of The College is an honor. One example of the high standards of being recognized, is that all Justices of the United States Supreme Court and all Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada have accepted an honorary fellowship at The College, and have accepted to address The College at one of its national meetings. Distinguished past presidents of The College are Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and former U.S. Attorney Griffin Bell.
The criteria for the honor of being awarded a fellowship in The American College of Trial Lawyers is rigorous. The vetting process requires a minimum of 15 years of active trial work being the principal activity of the nominee. In addition, high ethical and moral standards, and a demonstration of high character are also required. While being the best in their state (or province, if in Canada,) a nomination and award are not determined by geographical location.
Jim has an extensive amount of of trial and appellate experience throughout the State of Louisiana. Jim has tried over 60 jury trials to verdict, over 200 bench trials and exception hearings, and has over 90 reported cases in the Federal District/Appellate Courts and State Appellate Courts/Louisiana Supreme Court. Numerous Federal and State Court judges who have presided over trials in which Jim appeared as an attorney were interviewed regarding Jim’s trial experience and high character as part of the process of being inducted into the The American College of Trial Lawyers. Additionally, numerous attorneys that were involved in the trials/cases were also interviewed as part of the induction process. There are more than 19,000 licensed attorneys in the state of Louisiana and just over 100 are members of The American College of Trial Lawyers.
Jim continues to demonstrate the highest ethical standards in his representation of his clients as well as his deep level of trial and appellate experience. Jim also has drawn on this vast experience in serving as a lecturer on topics related to professional liability in Louisiana as well as nationwide. Jim has been called upon by the Louisiana legislature to provide testimony to that body regarding Louisiana laws pertaining to professional liability, an area of law in which he has over 30 years of experience.
Matindale-Hubbell is one of the oldest and most trusted evaluators of attorneys in the United States. Jim holds an AV rating, the highest level of peer rating awarded by Martindale-Hubbell. In addition to this rating, in another peer rating service, “Super Lawyers”, Jim has constantly been rated as one of the “Super Lawyers” in the State of Louisiana.
