James P. Kimmel Jr.
James Kimmel, Jr. is a novelist, lawyer, scholar and advocate who
focuses on the intersections of law and spirituality and law and
psychology. He received his doctorate in jurisprudence from the
University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the University of
Pennsylvania Law Review. He received his B.S. degree summa cum laude
from the Schreyer Honors College of the Pennsylvania State University.
Early in his legal career, Jim served as a law clerk to a federal court judge. Later, as an attorney at one of the preeminent law firms in the United States and in his own legal practice, he appeared before courts across the country on behalf of a wide variety of clients, from indigent families and prisoners seeking better conditions of confinement to wealthy individuals and large corporations. Recognized as an expert in written advocacy and legal analysis, he was retained as a consultant by hundreds of other lawyers and law firms to assist them in developing legal strategies and drafting legal arguments. He was an early pioneer in training lawyers in India to provide legal research to American law firms, and he holds a United States Patent as the inventor of the first online legal research assignment and ordering system, which helped make this possible.
Despite his professional success, over time Jim began to experience a conflict between his most deeply held spiritual beliefs and his duties as a lawyer. The search for a resolution to this conflict led him into the fields of law and spirituality, law and psychology, and, ultimately, into writing. His journey is chronicled in his book, "Suing for Peace".
Jim is the author of the critically acclaimed novel "The Trial of Fallen Angels" (Penguin Random House/Amy Einhorn Books, 2012), the creator of Legal Ceasefire Day, a founding supporter of Peace Day Philly, an advisor to the CURE Addiction Center of Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Addiction Studies, the founder of the Nonjustice Foundation, and a co-founder of Peerstar LLC - a leading provider of forensic peer support services to individuals with serious mental illness in the criminal justice system.
Jim was raised on a farm in central Pennsylvania and worked alongside his great-grandfather tending a small herd of black angus cattle and raising the occasional litter of pigs. During high school and college, he worked part-time as a laborer and as a disc jockey and newscaster at three different commercial radio stations. One of his grandfathers was an ordained pastor in the Church of the Brethren; and at the age of eighteen, Jim delivered a sermon to his own Episcopal church. He is the first person in his family to graduate from college.
A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Jim has taught as an adjunct professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife (also a lawyer) and their two children.
Early in his legal career, Jim served as a law clerk to a federal court judge. Later, as an attorney at one of the preeminent law firms in the United States and in his own legal practice, he appeared before courts across the country on behalf of a wide variety of clients, from indigent families and prisoners seeking better conditions of confinement to wealthy individuals and large corporations. Recognized as an expert in written advocacy and legal analysis, he was retained as a consultant by hundreds of other lawyers and law firms to assist them in developing legal strategies and drafting legal arguments. He was an early pioneer in training lawyers in India to provide legal research to American law firms, and he holds a United States Patent as the inventor of the first online legal research assignment and ordering system, which helped make this possible.
Despite his professional success, over time Jim began to experience a conflict between his most deeply held spiritual beliefs and his duties as a lawyer. The search for a resolution to this conflict led him into the fields of law and spirituality, law and psychology, and, ultimately, into writing. His journey is chronicled in his book, "Suing for Peace".
Jim is the author of the critically acclaimed novel "The Trial of Fallen Angels" (Penguin Random House/Amy Einhorn Books, 2012), the creator of Legal Ceasefire Day, a founding supporter of Peace Day Philly, an advisor to the CURE Addiction Center of Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Addiction Studies, the founder of the Nonjustice Foundation, and a co-founder of Peerstar LLC - a leading provider of forensic peer support services to individuals with serious mental illness in the criminal justice system.
Jim was raised on a farm in central Pennsylvania and worked alongside his great-grandfather tending a small herd of black angus cattle and raising the occasional litter of pigs. During high school and college, he worked part-time as a laborer and as a disc jockey and newscaster at three different commercial radio stations. One of his grandfathers was an ordained pastor in the Church of the Brethren; and at the age of eighteen, Jim delivered a sermon to his own Episcopal church. He is the first person in his family to graduate from college.
A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Jim has taught as an adjunct professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife (also a lawyer) and their two children.
