H. Nathan James (Nate) has been practicing law for 31 years and is a certified specialist in family law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. Nate has extensive experience in family law matters including:
- Pre- and post-marital agreements;
- High conflict custody cases;
- Visitation and move away matters;
- Complicated valuation, characterization and division of businesses and personal assets and high net worth cases;
- Post dissolution judgment issues;
- Same sex and domestic partnership divorces;
- Domestic violence, and most other aspects of family practice.
Some of Nate’s family law highlights include:
- Numerous successful custody and visitation outcomes for parents who wanted joint physical and legal custody or more time with a child;
- Numerous successful results in child support disputes;
- Hundreds of negotiated Marital Settlement Agreements;
- Successful outcomes in complex spousal support issues, including the earnings ability of a non-working spouse and the determination of marital standard of living. Both of these issues require the use of experts and are relevant to the issue of spousal support.
- Successful outcomes and resolutions for parties who were initially unable even to talk to each other.
Nate is also an experienced trial attorney, personal injury and civil litigator. A San Francisco native, Nate had extensive trial experience as an assistant district attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney Office from 1980 to 1984. Nate started his career where as a law student he worked for one of the first personal injury attorneys who advertised in the yellow pages. It was here where Nate developed skill in interviewing clients and interfacing with insurers and medical providers in an effort to resolve client personal injury claims. His many years of experience have given Nate valuable insight into evaluating personal injury cases in deciding whether to resolve a case through settlement or jury trial.
Nate continues to try cases to juries when necessary. Some highlights of his civil litigation/trial experience, include:
- A $2,000,000 settlement in a head injury case, where client did not lose consciousness;
- The largest settlement in Sacramento history, at the time of the award, in a non-shooting police brutality/civil rights case;
- Millions of dollars in compensation for employees subjected to wrongful termination by large corporations including Macy’s, 24 Hour Fitness, and First Interstate Bank, and including a six figure settlement in the wrongful termination of a gay manager;
- A $728,000 jury trial verdict against a landlord and management company where his client slipped and fell on mail left on the stairs at her apartment;
- Millions of dollars in compensation for injured clients with soft tissue injuries or “invisible injuries”—those that do not show up on an x-ray, CAT scan or MRI scan—often with little damage to vehicles; and where the opposing parties’ experts claimed that the force from the impacting vehicles were similar to sneezing or plopping down in a chair.
A lover of music, Nate managed a local rock and roll band during his early years in practice, landing them a major label recording contract. That led to Nate’s representation of many popular Bay Area recording and performing artists and the negotiation of numerous contracts, including recording agreements, artist management and talent agent agreements, and songwriter and publishing agreements. Nate has represented many young and upcoming local Bay Area artists, enriching his knowledge and understanding of business transactions. Nate continues to represent artists with music, trademark, transactional, contract and other entertainment related matters.
Nate is admitted to practice in all state courts in California, the Central and Northern District Federal Courts of California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal and the United States Tax Court.
Nate loves physical activity, from hiking on Mt. Tam to walking the hills of San Francisco. As an avid bicyclist, Nate cycles to work from his home in Marin County.