Jim Thomas

Jim Thomas is a business lawyer with years of corporate and M&A experience in Greater Denver and a little-known knack for handling the front end of a tandem bike, where he's known as “Captain.”  Most of Jim's clients are privately-held companies and individuals who look to him as a long-term, trusted advisor, helping with business issues and purchase and sales transactions all over the U.S.  

He enjoys working in varied industries, representing a wide variety of businesses from formation through exit and succession strategies, and whenever complex issues arise in the business life cycle. These include:

• Manufacturers
• Distributors
• Construction companies
• Publishers
• Service companies
• Real estate investors

Also, Jim represents other lawyers and law firms in their business transactions.  "I'm told that one of my strengths is that I'm a good listener," according to Jim. "I often spend a good portion of a meeting quietly assimilating the thoughts of clients and other advisors before I begin to propose my ideas to the client. That's a big plus for clients who might otherwise lose sight of the forest."

Experience

• Can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em:  Jim’s client, a B2B service business, was the first US acquisition by an international firm.  When that buyer wanted to acquire more US companies, it hired Jim.  Together, they are now working on the buyer’s seventh US transaction. 
• Family affair:  Sometimes, the true family business is being entrepreneurial rather than the activity that created the family’s wealth.  Jim has helped more than one family through that transition, including a former publisher that after the sale of that business created, with Jim’s aid, family-operated real estate, and service businesses.  
• Grow your own replacement:  The owners of a manufacturing company worked with Jim to create a plan for enabling emerging leaders in that firm to take over operational responsibility and eventually ownership of the company.  The plan has been so successful that the first round of replacements has since been replaced themselves.
• Poster kids:  After observing Jim help her husband sell his company, Jim was asked by the wife to sell her travel-related business.  After several years of traveling and enjoying the proceeds of those sales, together they asked Jim to help them with a Hawaiian real estate opportunity for them to develop (including building their own dream home). 
• Serial entrepreneur:  In the transaction world, a lawyer sometimes has to pause to remember if his client is the buyer or seller.  Jim has had to take that a step further with one advertising-related client with whom he has completed the buy-grow-sell cycle more than once. 

Professional and Civic Activities

• Current leadership roles:
  • Colorado Childrens's Chorale
• Prior leadership roles with:
  • Kempe Children’s Foundation
  • The Children’s Hospital Foundation
  • Stanley British Primary School
  • Washington Park Early Learning Center
  • Denver Area Council, Boy Scouts of America
  • Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership
  • Other commitments and participation include:
    • Philmont Staff Association
    • Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce
    • Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation
    • Colorado Companies to Watch
• Member, Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church – Jim has served his church in numerous capacities, ranging from chairing its Pastor Nominating Committee to performing in its musicals.  
• Jim also contributes to his profession, including mentoring law students.

Outside the Office

Jim camps, hikes, skis, and is a pretty good amateur photographer and cook. When he's tandem cycling, it's with his wife (known as the “Admiral”), whom he met as a fellow law student.