David James

David James is a partner at Sorrels Law who leads the firm's Beaumont office and focuses on maritime, transportation, and energy injury cases across Texas and Louisiana. A native of Port Arthur who grew up in the shadow of multiple refineries, he worked for refinery contractors and a vessel owner and operator on towboats and ships before law school, and worked his way through law school as a tankerman on barges in the Baton Rouge area. Before joining Sorrels Law he was a partner at a large multinational firm defending personal injury, property damage, and commercial matters for corporations and insurers.

Including a chemical exposure case involving more than 20,000 claimants where he secured dismissal of over 17,000 claims. He now represents injured workers and families in Jones Act claims, offshore and platform injuries, maritime wrongful death, LHWCA third-party claims, refinery and industrial site injuries, trucking accidents, and FELA railroad worker claims, and has obtained multiple seven and eight figure recoveries. He earned a B.S. in Maritime Administration from Texas A&M University at Galveston in 1994 and his J.D. from Louisiana State University in 2001, is licensed in Texas and Louisiana, and has been selected to The Best Lawyers in America for Admiralty and Maritime Law.