James Hodge

Bio

James, or Jake as he is known to many of his friends, focuses on selected small to mid-market companies, trusts, families and individuals in the formation, operation and management of their businesses, with an emphasis on their complex business and real estate transactions.  He also arbitrates and mediates with the American Arbitration Association. His main goals are to use his education and his experience to find creative practical solutions for his client’s problems, solve their complex business and real estate issues, keep his clients ahead of the power curve, and to help them reach their short and long-term business goals.

Mr. Hodge has gotten the greatest satisfaction in his legal career from working his way through the business and interpersonal aspects of solving problems and bringing people together in a way that is good for all.  As a natural progression, he has become an arbitrator and a mediator for the American Arbitration Association and in his own practice. He has taken advanced courses in all aspects of mediation and arbitration, as well as mediating the litigated case.

In 2023, Mr. Hodge became a Partner at Halloran Farkas + Kittila LLP where he continues his complex business and real estate transactions, arbitration and mediation practice in the Jackson office.

In 2004, Mr. Hodge began private practice as James. B. Hodge, Attorney at Law, in Jackson, Wyoming. Before opening his own firm, from 1981-2004 Mr. Hodge served many roles with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP, an international law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, including Equity Partner Resident, Managing Partner, Firm Business Development Coordinator and Member of Professional Personal Committee and Corporate and Real Estate Departments in its San Francisco office. Prior to that, Mr. Hodge was Founder and Managing Partner of Hodge, Buchannan, Falik & Dupree, and its predecessors from 1974-1981. Mr. Hodge began his law career with Morrison & Foerster, LLP, in San Francisco as an Associate in the Business Department from 1971-1974.

Education/Honors and Awards

Columbia University School of Law in the City of New York; J.D. 1971.  Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, Second and Third Years (awarded for academic excellence). Interim Articles Editor, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, B.A. in political science 1968.

Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, “Mediating the Litigated Case” Certificate in Dispute Resolution, 2021.

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Admissions

• State Bar of California  
  

• State Bar of Wyoming

Affiliations

• Member Real Estate Section, Business Section, and Environmental Law Sections of California Lawyers Association
  

• Member of Business Law Section of Wyoming Bar Association
  

• Member Teton County Bar Association
  

• Member California Bar Section on Solo Practice and Small Firm Management, 1974-1976
  

• Member of the Arbitration Panel of the American Arbitration Association
  

• Member of the LegacyWorks Group Teton Regional Advisory Board
  

• Member American Bar Association Subsection on Partnership Taxation, 1975-1977

Awards

• Rated as “AV Preeminent” (the highest rating in both legal ability and ethical standards) by Martindale-Hubbell since 1976.

Panels and Professional Activities

• Guest Lecturer on Wetland Mitigation Banking and Environmental Law, University of Washington, 2005-2006
  

• Panel Chairman, American Bar Association Meeting, “Taxation of Partnerships,” Honolulu, Hawaii, 1980
  

• Panel Chairman 2000, California Bar Association Annual Meeting, “Real Estate Development; Doing Good While Doing Well,” discussing the environmentally responsible redevelopment of the Mission Bay, San Francisco, rail yard of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, by Southern Pacific and Catellus Development Corporation, into condominiums, hospitals and biotechnology research and development facilities
  

• Address to the California Society of CPAs, Monterey, California, on synthetic leases, 1998
  

• Address to the Santa Clara Bar Association, on the “Year 2000 Problem”, 1999
  

• Address to the Wyoming Bar Association Convention, “Fast and Furious Tips for Drafting Arbitration Provisions”, 2022

Publications

• “The New California Limited Liability Company Act” California Business Law Practitioner, Spring 1996
  

• "The Synthetic Lease:  Off-Balance-Sheet Financing of the Acquisition of Real Property," The Real Estate Finance Journal, Fall, 1998 (Quoted in Strategy and Place; Managing Corporate Real Estate and Facilities for Competitive Advantage, Martha A. O’Mara. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1999
  

• "The Synthetic Lease:  Off-Balance Sheet Financing of the Acquisition of Real Property," California Real Property Journal, Spring, 1998
  

• "A Sample Operating Agreement for a Limited Liability Company Engaged in a Real Estate Venture," California Business Law Practitioner, Spring 1996
  

• "Operating a Real Estate Venture Through a California Limited Liability Company," California Business Law Practitioner, Spring 1995
  

• Co-author with Grant Fondo, "Legal Aspects of the Year 2000 Problem," Santa Clara Law Review, Vol. 39, No. 3 1999.
  

• Quoted in Entrepreneur, “Seven Qualities to Look for in a Lawyer” February 28, 2013. https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/7-qualities-to-look-for-in-a-lawyer/225906