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From several years serving as general counsel for a telecommunications company, attorney James (“Jim”) Neeld, IV knows what it’s like to sit on the other side of the table as a client. That perspective has fundamentally informed his practice and how he approaches the concerns of his own clients.
He understands that a client has a problem they simply need solved. They don’t need their attorney to write them a treatise, redefine the issues, or hand them a lengthy memo discussing all the “on the other hands.” Clients want answers, practical advice, responsiveness, and communication, says Neeld.
“That perspective has been tremendously helpful,” Neeld says. “It’s something that anytime I’m hired by somebody to help them with a knotty problem, I really do try to remember.”
It is from this perspective that he tells his partners and associates that while cost is certainly on the list of concerns for clients, it is usually not the first thing on the list. “I would gladly pay more to have an experienced lawyer give me a prompt answer I have confidence in, than to pay less to get an answer I’m not that sure about,” he says.
His time as a general counsel was a bit of a sabbatical from Young Wells Williams P.A., the law firm he joined right after graduating from the University of Mississippi School of Law — more commonly referred to as Ole Miss Law — and where he was the president for 14 years, until just recently handing over the reins to another shareholder.
As still a young lawyer in the late 1990s, Neeld at one point found he was spending nearly 90 percent of his time on one client, Tritel, Inc., a company founded by local wireless industry veterans including one of the law firm’s former partners, E.B. Martin, Jr. Through a newly-established auction process, the founders acquired new FCC licenses for wireless spectrum and then entered into a strategic partnership with AT&T Wireless to provide a next generation of digital wireless service, Personal Communications Service (PCS). When the company approached him to be its general counsel and secretary, it was an opportunity Neeld couldn’t pass up. Over the next few years, it was a whirlwind as he helped steer the company through growing from twelve to hundreds of employees, a substantial private equity raise, a high yield bond offering, and ultimately, an initial public offering.
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