James E. Brydges, Jr.
"Trust me. I'm a lawyer," is not something most of us could say without having our friends laugh out loud, but to Jim Brydges, VADA's 2008 recipient of the Excellence in Civil Litigation Award, it's the most important part of being a lawyer.
Because many laymen get their impressions of lawyers by watching television, Brydges works to instill the importance of ethics, collegiality, and support in the younger attorneys in his firm. "If you can't trust each other, if you don't know that the other members of your legal team have your back, you can't possibly achieve your goal," he says.
The same ethos follows him into the courtroom and the professional associations in which he has been active. It has been evident in all his bar activities: as past president of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, past president of the Virginia Beach Bar Association, a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation, as a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference on Civil Litigation, the VSB and VBA, the Norfolk Portsmouth Bar Association, the DRI, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, and as a substitute judge in the general district and juvenile and domestic relations district courts in Virginia Beach. Jim believes that giving back to the profession is one way he can help foster cooperative relationships in a profession that is generally considered to be adversarial.
Graduating from UVA law school, he went to work with one of his uncles and primarily practiced in the areas of criminal and court martial defense. Later, after setting up his own general practice in Virginia Beach when it was "still a small town," Brydges joined Taylor and Walker in 1982. He is currently listed in "The Best Lawyers in America" in the insurance defense category.
He has been married to his wife, Esther, for 40 years, and they are the parents of two grown children, Jennifer Overbo, who resides in California with her family, and Brian Brydges. Brian lives in Roanoke with his family, is a partner in Johnson Ayers & Matthews, and is a member of VADA.
Excellence in Civil Litigation Award