James A. Kowalski, Jr. has served as the President and CEO of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid since December 2012. He is an AV (Preeminent) civil trial attorney and former homicide prosecutor and is admitted in Florida and California. Jim moved to Northeast Florida in 1989, after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of San Francisco School of Law. He served as an Assistant State Attorney from 1989-1996; after leaving the State Attorney’s Office, he specialized in litigation and handled matters involving consumer protection, (wrongful foreclosure and consumer fraud), complex personal injury, wrongful death, and premises liability litigation. Jim has tried more than 65 jury trials to verdict. Prior to joining JALA, Jim was named “Consumer Protection Lawyer of the Year” by the Consumer Protection Law Committee of the Florida Bar. He is the recipient of the 2014 Peter E. Haas Public Service Award from the University of California, Berkeley, and June 2016, Jim received the Florida Bar Foundation President’s Award for Excellence. In November 2014, Jim was selected by then-Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga as one of 27 inaugural members of the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice, and served until terming off in 2018. In October 2018, Jim was named the “Consumer Advocate of the Year” by the National Association of Consumer Advocates.