About James Gilliland

From 1993 to 1997, Jim Gilliland served by Presidential appointment as the General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture, the nation's senior lawyer on all matters of law and policy involving America's food, forest, and farm areas. With a staff of 300 lawyers in 27 offices, his responsibilities ranged from controversies over use of the nation's forests, to agricultural trade issues of GATT and NAFTA, to oversight of the U.S.D.A.'s $100-billion loan portfolio for America's rural needs, to the enforcement of America's food safety laws, to nutritional assistance for America's underserved.

Jim has supervised nearly 10,000, cases including the landmark “Spotted Owl Case” that halted all logging on Pacific Northwest public lands, a case that he ultimately helped conclude. A graduate of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt Law School, Mr. Gilliland served as a partner of the Memphis law firm now named Glankler Brown PLLC, where he is 'of counsel.' Until recently, he chaired America's largest national battlefield preservation trust, and sat on several corporate and national nonprofit boards, including the Environmental Law Institute. Jim and his wife, Lucia, live in Memphis, Tennessee and part time in Jackson, Wyoming.