Jim Souza is co-foundering partner of Kennedy and Souza with nearly 25 years of experience litigating in state and federal court on behalf of subcontractors, general contractors, manufacturers, high net worth individuals, and a variety of other businesses throughout California. His early years practicing law focused on insurance defense work, but his skill and unique perspective on resolving complex matters creatively and efficiently soon brought him to substantially expand his practice to include defense of wrongful death claims, catastrophic loss cases, OCIP/wrap litigation, products liability cases, professional liability claims, business litigation, and a variety of other civil litigation matters. Jim has been involved in resolving over 2500 litigated matters and has a proven record of resolving cases pre-litigation when appropriate to do so, but also being willing to take matters through trial and to verdict when circumstances warrant doing so. Over the last several years, Jim has received defense verdicts in high exposure cases in both state and federal court including a three month jury trial that resulted in a complete defense verdict for his client and obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and costs as the prevailing party.
Jim is an exceptional communicator and works with every client to make being proactive and responsive a priority so that every client is treated as a priority. Jim’s philosophy is that success comes from hard work and from building a team of exceptional people to represent the interests and achieve the goals desired by clients which is the foundation upon which Kennedy & Souza, APLC is built. As a result of Jim’s commitment to clients and his expertise as a litigator, he has been awarded Martindale Hubbell’s AV Preeminent rating, has been one of 10 finalists recognized by the San Diego Daily Transcript for construction litigation attorneys in multiple years, and has been recognized as one of California’s best attorneys practicing personal injury, premises liability, products liability, and construction litigation by several Who’s Who publications including those affiliated with World Wide Registry, the Legal Network, Forbes Magazine, and just recently had an interview published by worldwide publishing in its book ”Top Lawyers, the secrets to their success”.
A rare, San Diego native, Jim graduated from California Western School of Law in 1995, where he was honored to serve as a senior editor on law review. He graduated from San Diego State University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in business with an emphasis in accounting. Jim loves teaching, coaching and mentoring, and has been blessed to have many opportunities to put those skills to good use both inside and outside of his law practice.