James D. Friedland

Associate

Chicago
james.friedland@lw.com
+1.312.876.6531

PRACTICES

  • Complex Commercial Litigation
  • Environment, Land & Resources
  • Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)
  • Litigation & Trial

INDUSTRIES

  • Automotive
  • Energy & Infrastructure
  • Retail & Consumer Products

BAR QUALIFICATIONS

  • California
  • Illinois

EDUCATION

  • JD, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 2014
  • BA in Public Policy, Duke University, 2009

PROFILE

James (Jamie) Friedland is a senior associate in Latham & Watkins' Litigation & Trial Department and Environment, Land & Resources Practice.

James represents clients primarily in complex commercial and energy-related disputes. He represents plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state courts across the country, engaging in every stage of litigation, including drafting and answering complaints, conducting written discovery, taking and defending depositions, preparing and opposing expert witnesses, drafting and arguing motions, and seeing cases through trial.

James has additional experience advising clients on a range of environmental compliance and energy transition matters, including federal and state climate programs (such as the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)) as well as other development considerations and risk analyses for carbon capture, hydrogen, and wind projects.

James serves on the firm’s Pro Bono Committee and has worked on dozens of pro bono matters, including class action litigation leading to increased access to interpreters for deaf and hard-of-hearing employees at the Department of Agriculture, successful litigation to end the practice of torture at a federal prison in Thomson, IL, and asylum and immigration cases.

Prior to joining Latham, James served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. James graduated from the UCLA School of Law and was an editor on the UCLA Law Review. During law school, James also worked at the Environmental Defense Section of the US Department of Justice and the Natural Resources Section of California’s Office of the Attorney General.

EXPERIENCE

James's experience includes representing:

  • Wind developers in litigation challenging the approvals for offshore wind projects in the Northeast
  • Clorox in alleged public nuisance litigation regarding micro plastics, with a recent demurrer victory
  • The nuclear power industry in analyzing novel strategies to fund spent nuclear fuel storage
  • Hydrogen project developers navigating new regulations and tax credits
  • CONSOL in a successful trial verdict for a contract dispute regarding preferential purchase rights in a billion-dollar midstream oil and gas joint venture
  • CCC Intelligent Solutions in many class action cases around the country, in both state and federal court, regarding vehicle valuation algorithms
  • A former business entity in successful dismissal from a long-running dispute regarding seniority and disbursement of royalties in an oil field
  • Navistar in multi-district litigation relating to alleged MaxxForce Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) engine defects
  • Reckitt Benckiser in a settled class action regarding alleged misrepresentations in marketing materials for a nutritional supplement

Publications

  • “Under the (Territorial) Sea: Reforming U.S. Mining Law for Earth’s Final Frontier,” 61 UCLA L. Rev. 1548 (2014)
  • “The 'Lone Grid' State: Texas as the Ideal Location for State-Level Climate Regulation,” 38 Colum. J. Envtl. L. Field Rep. 49 (2013)