Practice Areas:
 •   Complex business disputes
 •   Personal injury and torts
 •   Insurance claims
 •   Alternative dispute resolution

E-mail: jim@grumbachroyal.com

Education:
B.A. in Art History from Yale University, 1973
J.D. from Boston University School of Law, 1977

James E. Grumbach As a creative trial lawyer and experienced mediator, Jim employs multiple strategies to obtain the best possible results for clients in every engagement.  Specializing in complex litigation, professional liability, personal injury, business disputes and insurance, Jim’s mediation training and experience as a mediator and arbitrator enable him to resolve many disputes amicably.  When that is not feasible, his expertise as an accomplished litigator makes him a forceful advocate for his clients in court. 

Jim combines skills gained as a professional neutral with his extensive experience representing clients in mediation, arbitration, and before various administrative tribunals – and through trying many cases before juries and judges in the Superior and District Courts, as well as the Federal Court, Bankruptcy and Probate Courts.  When necessary, he has pursued matters to the Appeals and Supreme Judicial Courts, as well as the First Circuit Court of Appeals.  Jim’s affable demeanor builds rapport with judges and jurors, paving the way for his thorough command of the facts and resourceful application of the law to advance his clients’ positions with uncommon clarity and persuasiveness.

Hailed one of the “Massachusetts Super Lawyers” by Boston Magazine yearly since 2004, Jim is comfortable representing both plaintiffs and defendants.  He has secured favorable results for a wide variety of clients, occasionally obtaining awards far greater than the amounts clients originally sought – and beyond the face value of insurance policies.

Jim welcomes challenges that provide opportunities for his creative thinking to deliver out-sized success.  He has a particularly long record of accomplishment in the following areas:

• Personal injury and torts
• Professional liability including medical, legal, and insurance broker malpractice
• Insurance coverage, bad faith, and fraud claims
• Commercial disputes of all types, including sales of businesses and other assets, contract disputes, intellectual property matters, and antitrust actions
• Employment issues including contracts, wrongful termination, non-competition agreements, and discrimination claims
• Corporate and partnership disputes
• Real estate and construction matters, including toxic waste and mold litigation

As a mediator, Jim first volunteered his services in 1979, helping resolve minor criminal matters, family and neighborhood disputes, and issues between consumers and merchants.  A decade later, Jim began mediating disputes pending before the courts and administrative agencies as an arbitrator and case evaluator.  As a panelist for a variety of private dispute resolution agencies and by direct referral, Jim has also resolved many commercial and contract disputes including loan workouts, employment and discrimination claims, corporate and partnership issues, real estate and lease disputes, and divorces.  As he also mediated numerous personal injury claims and cases involving product liability, lead paint, professional liability, construction and general liability, Jim steadily built a reputation for successfully handling complex matters.

Jim served as a mediation panelist for the Suffolk, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Worcester County Superior Courts; the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.  He has also mediated disputes on behalf of private and non-profit dispute resolution providers including the American Arbitration Association, US Arbitration & Mediation of New England, ADR/Equimar, National Arbitration and Mediation (NAM) and the Community Dispute Settlement Center (formerly known as the Cambridge Dispute Settlement Center).

Often sought as a speaker and ADR expert for seminars and continuing education programs, Jim is a co-author of Massachusetts Procedure, Alternative Dispute Resolution (Shubow, Grillo, Grumbach & Stedman).  Jim also shares his mediation expertise as a contributing author to Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education books, writing chapters in the 1999 and revised editions of the Massachusetts Tort Law Manual, and the 2001 edition of Winning Through Settlement.  In 2004, Jim chaired a seminar on “Representing Clients with Property Loss and Liability Claims” sponsored by the publisher of the continuing education book series. 

Jim earned a B.A. from Yale University in 1973 and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1977.  He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1977, the Bar of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 1978, and the Bar of the US Court of Appeals, First Circuit, in 1980.  Jim has been a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and its Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, the American Trial Lawyers Association (now known as the American Association for Justice), the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, and the Association for Conflict Resolution (formerly known as the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution).  Jim continues to serve as a member of the board and President Emeritus of the Community Dispute Settlement Center.

Jim has served as a member, and former chairman, of the Wayland Zoning Board of Appeals since 1999.