Jimmy is a trial and appellate lawyer with decades of experience in federal and state courts across the country, representing corporations and public agencies in all manner of environmental, tort, constitutional, and commercial disputes. His goal is to win and deter opponents from litigating against his clients.

His many courtroom wins led to Law360 naming him an “MVP” for 2020 and American Lawyer selecting him as a Runner-Up for Litigator of the Week five times in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and a Shout-Out recipient in 2023. His recent accomplishments include dismissals of class actions in Louisiana and Pennsylvania and dismissal of two class actions in precedent-setting opinions in the New York Appellate Division. He also secured a writ of mandate against Los Angeles County voiding permit terms for a client’s landfill (achieving savings valued at over $200 million), and securing federal preemption of a Baltimore air ordinance for a major waste-to-energy facility. Jimmy also recently scored a rare equitable estoppel ruling against a major local government, allowing his client to challenge numerous provisions of a conditional use permit.

Other achievements include securing a unanimous win in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court defeating toxic tort claims, Gilbert v. Synagro Central, 131 A.3d 1 (Pa. 2015) and a judgment for his client the City of Los Angeles after a two week trial on constitutional challenges to a voter initiative banning land application of biosolids, City of Los Angeles v. Kern County, 2017 WL 1292822 (Tulare Co. Cal. Super. Ct. 2017).

Jimmy has tried scores of jury and bench trials and argued cases before many federal and state appellate and trial courts across the country, including the California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and District of Columbia supreme courts. See, e.g., Cormier v. D.C. WASA, 84 A.3d 492 (D.C. 2013) (trial win and appellate affirmance, defeating tort claims of corrosive drinking water).

A Chambers-ranked lawyer, Jimmy is recognized as a leader in mass tort, class action and preemption litigation involving solid waste, drinking water, wastewater, and biosolids. His representation of waste and recycling companies, cities, farms, contractors, and trade associations spans toxic tort, enforcement defense, and complex constitutional and administrative law issues regarding competing federal, state, and local authority. Jimmy is a nationally recognized expert in defending cases related to PFAS and speaks regularly on the topic. He presents at meetings of the American Bar Association (ABA), the National Waste and Recycling Association (NWRA), the Water Environment Federation (WEF), its state affiliates, and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA). He also works with the country’s top scientists and engineers to defend his clients in the courts and before government agencies.

Toxic tort defense is a major part of Jimmy's practice, including defense of wrongful death, serious personal injury, and nuisance claims. He has handled the country’s most significant cases involving alleged public health impacts from land application of biosolids and from allegations of lead in drinking water. Jimmy regularly and successfully challenges plaintiffs’ medical and causation experts under Daubert and Frye. Jimmy’s class action defense experience includes defending cases alleging illegal pricing practices, and he has defeated class certification of such claims in federal courts across the country in recent years. 

Jimmy is also recognized for his success in preemption and commerce clause challenges to discriminatory and burdensome local legislation. He led a coalition of electronics trade groups and manufacturers in challenging the constitutionality of New York City's recycling and product-take back mandates. After Jimmy filed a motion for preliminary injunction, the City agreed to stay implementation of the law. He also led the successful efforts of the City of Los Angeles to overturn a local ban on the City’s use of its biosolids on California farmland as a fertilizer on Commerce Clause and other constitutional grounds.

Superfund litigation has long been a part of Jimmy’s docket and he has defended and prosecuted CERCLA claims around the country. Jimmy has led several PRP Group representations and won a major successor liability ruling in Pfohl Brothers Landfill Site Steering Committee v. Allied Waste, 255 F. Supp. 2d 134 (W.D.N.Y. 2003).

Jimmy joined B&D after three years as an Assistant and Senior Assistant Public Defender in Fairfax County, Virginia. While with the Public Defender's Office, Jimmy successfully defended against a capital murder indictment in Commonwealth v. Reed. Before joining the Public Defender's Office, Jimmy clerked for Judge James Sprouse of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

He is active in the ABA Section of Litigation, the Defense Research Institute (DRI), NWRA, NACWA, and WEF. He speaks and writes frequently on litigation and environmental law topics and served on the Law360 editorial advisory board for environmental law.

Jimmy currently serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center’s Energy & Environmental Litigation Advisory Committee and has served on DRI and ABA committees addressing environmental law and litigation. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Active in the bar, the District of Columbia Bar Board of Governors in 2024 reappointed Jimmy to serve a third two-year term on the Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee.