James S. Beall
Willig, Williams & Davidson Partner James S. Beall advises and represents a wide variety of public and private-sector single and multi-employer funds on comprehensive employee benefit and tax matters. He specializes in employee benefits law for the firm’s joint labor-management pension and welfare fund clients, as well as its labor union clients. Jim also represents workers in the longshore, transportation, baking, construction, hospitality and public safety industries.
Jim serves as special counsel to a large international union, advising the union on complex internal benefit matters, and providing representation in national benefit-related negotiations. Among other notable achievements on behalf of clients, he negotiated a pension benefit settlement that averted the need for a strike in a major U.S. port, and has prepared and presented numerous pension benefit deadlock arbitrations on behalf of union trustees.
A frequent lecturer, Jim has spoken at employee benefit seminars sponsored by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and by Harvard Law School. As a law student at the University of Michigan, he served as a note editor of the Michigan Law Review, publishing two pieces of his own in the publication. Jim completed his undergraduate education at University of Michigan, graduating with high distinction and being named a Harry S. Truman Scholar. He later earned an LL.M. in taxation from Villanova University School of Law.
“Best Lawyers in America” has listed Jim as one of the field’s top labor and employment lawyers since 2006. Education - Villanova University School of Law, LL.M., 1999
- University of Michigan Law School, J.D., Cum Laude, 1993
- University of Michigan, B.A., High Distinction, 1990
Experience - Willig, Williams & Davidson, Associate, 1995-2002; Partner, 2003-Present
- Hon. Gerald E. Rosen, U.S. District Judge, Eastern District of Michigan, Law Clerk, 1993-1994
Court Admissions - United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1997
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1995
- Supreme Court of Illinois, 1994
- Michigan Supreme Court, 1993
Professional Affiliations - American Bar Association, 1999-Present
- First Presbyterian Church Council on Community Concern Treasurer, 1999-2001
- Philadelphia Bar Association, 1995-Present
Honors - Best Lawyers in America, 2006-2010
Publications - “Book Notice:” Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School, 1993
- “Note: The Charge-Filing Requirement of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act: Accrual and Equitable Modification,” Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School, 1993
Speaking Engagements - Course Instructor: “Certificate of Achievement in Public Plan Policy: Fiduciary Duties of Pension and Welfare Trustees,” International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, Nationwide, 2006-Present
- “City of San Diego Pension Crisis,” Harvard Law School Labor & Worklife Program, Cambridge, Mass., 2006
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