Jim Heller is a nationally recognized product liability attorney with nearly 40 years of trial experience. He is co-chair of the Commercial Litigation Department, chair of the firm's Product Liability Practice Group, and a member of the firm's Management Committee and Board of Directors.
The focus of Jim’s preeminent product liability practice is defending single- and multi-plaintiff catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death claims. Jim has tried more than 60 cases to verdict or judgment and litigated hundreds of matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country. His record of success representing companies faced with extraordinary liability, sympathetic plaintiffs, and intense media scrutiny places him squarely among top-tier defense counsel.
Jim serves as national trial counsel to two public corporations. In that role, he first-chairs all litigation and trials, coordinates national litigation strategy, advises on external communications and product manuals, and serves as liaison to regulators and policymakers.
In addition to his primary practice, Jim has deep experience litigating toxic tort class actions, complex commercial disputes, health care fraud, and intellectual property infringement claims.
He first joined Cozen O’Connor in 1985, when the firm still had fewer than 60 lawyers, and has played a central role in building Cozen O’Connor’s award-winning Commercial Litigation Department from the ground up. Jim was recently profiled in The American Lawyer’s “Litigation Leader” series, which featured practice leaders of the country’s biggest litigation firms.
Jim is a SuperLawyer, and ALM Top-Rated Lawyer. He is also a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council and Phi Alpha Delta, the largest professional law fraternity in the U.S.
Jim earned his Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan in 1982, and his J.D. at the University of Miami School of Law in 1985.