Jim Bannon

Jim Bannon graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in 2006 and immediately began as a full-time prosecutor.
Initially licensed in Arizona in 2006, Jim continued to serve the public as an Assistant Solicitor in the 14th Judicial Circuit which covers Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper Counties. In that time, Jim has tried over twenty jury trials to verdict.
While working as a prosecutor, Jim was embedded with the Drug Team Task Force for the Mohave County Attorney’s Office and helped to found the Career Criminal Team for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
After years of public service as a lawyer in the prosecutor’s office, Jim shifted his focus to the private practice of law in the Bluffton, Beaufort, Ridgeland, Hardeeville, and Hilton Head Island areas as a criminal defense lawyer and trial attorney in 2013. Jim also practices as a criminal defense lawyer in the Federal District Court of South Carolina.
Since entering private practice, Jim has handled high-profile state and federal criminal matters including DUIs, drug trafficking, criminal sexual conduct with a minor, malicious injury to personal property, and murder.

• Lawyers in Film —the Good, the Bad and the Unethical

  
  

  Countless films across the years are based on controversies in legal ethics. We’ll watch parts of several movies, including 12 Angry Men, My Cousin Vinny, and many more. Then, we’ll dive into the analysis and enjoy discussing it as a group. For example, did the characters actually violate the law? Were their acts defensible, even excusable? How might they have better protected themselves? And come with your own favorite ethical quandaries from film.

• Legal Outsourcing to Foreign Support – Benefits and Pitfalls

  
  

  Outsourcing work is an effective and economical solution. But it can also be rife with legal ethics concerns, management issues, and communication inefficiencies. Our presenters will hit on each of these, discussing how firms of any size can fully address these to take advantage of the significant value-add that outsourcing offers.

• Lawyers and Evolving Cannabis Laws

  
  

  Cannabis laws continue to evolve quickly, affecting the advice lawyers should be giving. Like other fast-moving areas, this presents ethical concerns for lawyers. And because it relates to drugs, other legal ethics issues are raised. We’ll discuss these, the evolving rules, and the impact on constitutional protections for your clients.

• Mental Health for Lawyers

  
  

  Most lawyers face burnout on a regular basis. Our presenters will speak from personal experience on “falling apart without falling apart.” How do you keep sane, prevent burnout, and maintain balance in your daily life? This will be a practical presentation that also considers the ethical considerations of working with clients when you’re “beyond your bandwidth.”

• Working Relationships – Keeping Sanity in the Office

  
  

  Even two-person offices have interpersonal conflict. In this presentation we’ll discuss how to protect relationships at the law firm office even while working in a high-stakes environment on highly personal issues. This is one of those topics that everyone knows is important, but doesn’t spend the time to get right. And the consequences are huge.