• Tennessee

• New York University, L.L.M., 1979, in Taxation
• Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D., 1977
• Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1974, Economics, summa cum laude

For 18 years, James served as the sole tax attorney for the Supreme Court of Tennessee, assisting the Court on every state and local tax case that came before it. In this role, he enabled the Court to establish a logical and clear framework for Tennessee state and local tax law. He was also the Court’s only attorney who dealt with certified questions of civil law in which federal courts requested answers to unsettled issues of Tennessee law. In addition, he advised the Court on a wide variety of other civil matters that resulted in important shaping or modification of Tennessee law (such as Tennessee’s adoption of comparative fault in tort cases).

Prior to his service for the Tennessee Supreme Court, James was in private practice in Nashville for more than 11 years. In this practice he handled a broad array of matters that involved federal or state tax issues. Included among these were issues of corporate and partnership taxation, estate planning, exempt organizations and charitable donations.

Experience

From his educational background and many years of experience in private practice and in the Tennessee judicial system, James has obtained considerable depth and breadth of knowledge regarding matters of business, taxation and litigation.

The following is a list of representative published opinions for cases that were among the tax cases that came before the Supreme Court of Tennessee while James was its tax attorney.

• Easco, Inc. v. Cardwell, 840 S.W.2d 913 (Tenn. 1992). A corporate excise case in which the issue was whether sales of assets should be attributable to a liquidating corporation or its shareholders.
  
• Associated Partnership I, Inc. v. Huddleston, 889 S.W.2d 190 (Tenn. 1994). Whether capital gain realized by a corporation from the sale of a partnership interest properly was classified as non-business earnings or business earnings for excise tax purposes.
• Southern Railway Co. v. Taylor, 812 S.W.2d 577 (Tenn. 1991). A corporate excise tax decision holding that the deduction for dividends received from a more than 80% owned subsidiary is an allowable deduction in computing a “net operating loss.”
• American Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Huddleston, 880 S.W.2d 682 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1994) (permission to appeal denied June 27, 1994). A corporate excise tax case holding that affiliated corporations doing business in and outside of Tennessee are required to file excise tax returns on a separate entity basis by using a standard formula for the apportionment of business earnings.
• AT&T Corp. v. Johnson, 148 S.W.3d 74 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2004) (permission to appeal denied September 7, 2004). A corporate excise tax decision holding that a survivor corporation is not entitled to deduct net operating losses incurred by a predecessor corporation prior to a merger.
• Federated Stores Realty, Inc. v. Huddleston, 852 S.W.2d 206 (Tenn. 1992). A corporate excise tax decision requiring a corporation to use a variance from the standard formula in determining the extent of its business activity in Tennessee.
• Itel Containers International Corp. v. Cardwell, 814 S.W.2d 29 (Tenn. 1991). A decision holding that the imposition of Tennessee sales taxes on a lessor of containers used in the international transportation of goods does not violate the Commerce Clause or the Import/Export Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
• Hearthstone, Inc. v. Moyers, 809 S.W.2d 888 (Tenn. 1991). A decision holding that neither a contractor’s purchases of building materials for resale in other states nor its resale of erected homes to out-of-state customers were subject to the Tennessee sales or use taxes.
• SC&T Properties v. Huddleston, 823 S.W.2d 541 (Tenn. 1992). Holding that the sales tax exclusions for “occasional and isolated sales” and “sales for resale” are not mutually exclusive.
• Eastman Chemical Co. v. Johnson, 151 S.W.3d 503 (Tenn. 2004). The Supreme Court determined that chemical catalysts used by a corporate taxpayer fell within the sales and use tax industrial machinery exemption.
• Hutton v. Johnson, 956 S.W.2d 484 (Tenn. 1997). Holding that the sale of an airplane in a “like-kind exchange” does not entitle the seller to a credit for “articles taken in trade” for sales tax purposes.
• Colonial Pipeline Co. v. Morgan, 263 S.W.3d 827 (Tenn. 2008). A property tax case in which it was held that the constitutionality of a tax statute can be challenged in a declaratory judgment proceeding so long as a specific tax assessment is not being challenged.
• Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. Tennessee State Board of Equalization, 861 S.W.2d 232 (Tenn. 1993). Determining the proper procedure for challenging a property tax assessment of centrally assessed public utility property.
• In re All Assessments, 58 S.W.3d 95 (Tenn. 2000). A property tax case dealing with the equalization of the ratio of the appraised value to fair market value of public utility property in a particular county with the corresponding ratio for industrial and commercial property in that county.
• Dobson v. Huddleston, 863 S.W.2d 932 (Tenn. 1993). A case dealing with the determination, for purposes of the “Hall Income Tax,” of the portion of a distribution of cash from a corporation that constitutes “incomes derived by way of dividends from stocks.”
• Steele v. Industrial Development Board, 950 S.W.2d 345 (Tenn. 1997). A decision holding that industrial development bonds issued by a city are “bonds” (and not ordinary commercial paper) for purposes of the Hall Income Tax.
• Estate of Williams v. Huddleston, 938 S.W.2d 415 (Tenn. 1997). An opinion that determined the amount of a spouse’s elective share that qualifies for the inheritance tax marital deduction.

• The Order of the Coif
• Phi Beta Kappa

• Tennessee Bar Association
• Nashville Bar Association

• Westminster Presbyterian Church

Author: "Tracking the Course of Tennessee Tax Disputes"
Nashville Bar Journal, August 2009

Author: "Tennessee Department of Revenue"
Tennessee Bar Journal, February 2010