Jim is a shareholder of Ryley Carlock & Applewhite in Denver and practices in the areas of environmental law, water resources development, public lands, and public policy government affairs.  He also chairs the firm's Compensation Committee.

His background includes ten years of federal government service in the United States Senate staff and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  He gained first-hand insight into the origins and underlying philosophies of today's environmental programs as a result of his tenure as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Gordon Allott, the co-author of the National Environmental Policy Act.  He served as Regional EPA Counsel in Denver in the 1970's, and later worked as a policy consultant in Washington, D.C. to the Administrator of the EPA.

As one of the first practitioners of environmental law in the Rocky Mountain region, Jim continues to be ranked as a leading environmental lawyer by the Chambers USA 2008 - 2012 Client's Guides.  Law Week Colorado's "Barrister's Best" named Jim "Best Environmental Lawyer" in 2013.  He is listed in Colorado Super Lawyers 2010 - 2014 editions, and is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell.  In January 2008 Jim was named "Lawyer of the Year" by Law Week Colorado for negotiating the electric utility industry's 2007 landmark consensus with environmental groups, local governments and the Colorado state agency reducing mercury emissions from Colorado's 22 coal-fired power plants.