The International Academy of Trial Lawyers (IATL) has appointed James McManis, a founding partner of the leading Northern California trial firm McManis Faulkner, Vice-Chair of its China Program.
The Academy’s China Program was started in 1994 to assist in the development of the legal, economic and financial infrastructure of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Raymond Tam, a Honolulu IATL Fellow has served as the program’s Chair since its inception. McManis is the first Fellow to be designated as Vice Chair. The program gives Chinese lawyers and leaders the opportunity to travel to the U.S. and spend two weeks in the home of an IATL Fellow, and be involved in the professional and personal life of a practicing American trial attorney. The visit is preceded by a one-week orientation program in Honolulu. To date, about 150 Chinese lawyers have participated in the program and returned to the PRC to serve in prominent positions in the Chinese government.
McManis has been a member of Academy since 2002 and has been an active participant in the China Program, hosting three Chinese attorneys. In the 35 years since founding McManis Faulkner, McManis has represented many Silicon Valley companies with regard to commercial, trade secret and intellectual property issues. He also represents individuals in a variety of matters, including civil rights actions, employment disputes, and criminal defense. A member of the trial bar for more than 40 years, McManis is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for 11 consecutive years and appears in Who’s Who in America. McManis received his J.D. from Berkeley Law at the University of California (1967) and his B.A. in History, with Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford University (1964).
The Academy is a group of elite trial lawyers representing both sides of the bar: prosecutors and defense attorneys in criminal cases, and plaintiffs lawyers and defense counsel in civil matters (including business and personal injury cases). While the majority of its Fellows come from the U.S., the Academy includes lawyers from more than 30 countries. Fellowship is by invitation only, and trial lawyers are invited to become Fellows only after an extremely careful vetting process that includes discreet inquiries of both judges and other trial lawyers of high standing. U. S. membership is limited to the top 500 trial lawyers in America under the age of 70. The Academy's purposes are to promote reforms in the law, facilitate the administration of justice, promote the rule of law internationally and elevate the standards of integrity, honor and courtesy in the legal profession. On the Web: http://www.iatl.net