James Abernethy

A New York native, James was admitted to the State University of New York at Albany in the fall of 1982 at the age of sixteen. He graduated cum laude in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He subsequently received his J.D. from Arizona State University Law School in 1989 and has practiced within the state of Arizona since that time. His office is located in Phoenix, Arizona.

An astute litigator, James’ eclectic mix of practice areas includes serious personal injury, insurance/bad faith, medical and professional malpractice, securities, commercial and civil trial work and appeals. He has represented numerous clients who have sustained serious and permanent brain injuries. In addition, James has been involved in a number of reported legal opinions including Estate of Jared M. Reinen v. Northern Arizona Orthopedics, Ltd., 198 Ariz. 283, 9 P. 3d 314 (2000) which helped extend Constitutional rights to a Jehovah’s Witness in a medical malpractice action after he exercised his religious beliefs in refusing a post-operative blood transfusion.

In the spring of 2008, James was asked to provide assistance to the plaintiffs’ class action trial team in the cases of Nguyen, et al. v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., Meoli v. AT&T Wireless, Inc. et al., and Mendoza v. Cingular Wireless LLC et al., a series of consolidated lawsuits filed in Oakland against various cell phone companies regarding their business practices of Early Termination Fees and their Handset Locking of cell phones.

More recently, James has been involved in a series of plaintiffs’ cases filed throughout the country and Puerto Rico regarding various high net worth individuals brought against Citigroup for the marketing and sale of Citigroup’s ASTA and MAT Funds, which sought to use a leveraged municipal arbitrage bond strategy to enhance investor returns. These funds subsequently went on to lose much, if not all, of their value in the subsequent credit crisis.

Licensed to practice in the state and federal courts of Arizona, James is also a Sustaining Member of the Arizona Trial Lawyers Association.

James Abernethy is of counsel at Friedman | Rubin.