Attorney James L. Walker, Jr. has immersed himself in the entertainment industry in various capacities throughout his career. Attorney Walker owns and operates J. Walker and Associates, LLP, a leading general service law firm in the Greater Atlanta area. His practice includes entertainment law, television/film/theater contracts and clients, intellectual property, tax, non-profits, litigation, business law, and corporate law. Outside of legal practice, he currently serves as a Board Member and legal counsel for countless nonprofits including the Bronze Lens Film Festival, The National Black Arts Festival (NBAF), The Marquis Grissom Foundation, among many others. Additionally, Attorney Walker has set up a plethora of nonprofits and corporations and has won countless awards for his service.
In his career as an attorney, he has been involved in the counsel of radio and TV talent, corporations, musicians, filmmakers, athletes, over 100 churches, and more. Attorney Walker has had clients that were featured on every major network, including reality shows like the Real Housewives of Atlanta, Real Housewives of Potomac, Growing Up Hip Hop, Grown & Gospel, Basketball Wives, as well as clients on American Idol, BET’s Sunday’s Best, Diddy’s “the Four”. He has also worked with the likes of Soledad
O’Brien, Jamie Foxx, Kerry Gordy, DMX, Aretha Franklin, K Camp, Take 6, Koryn Hawthorne, Mikki Howard, Patti Labelle, Keke Wyatt, Shirley Caesar, DJ Jay Knix, DJ Darlene McCoy and DJ Willie Moore, Jr. and many more. Attorney Walker also settled a dispute involving his artist and Jay-Z for the “Family Affair” song, which Twinkie Clark now owns half the song and won the Take 6 vs. H.E.R. settlement in the Southern District of New York.
Over twenty-five years ago, Attorney Walker acted on his ardent passion for the theater arts. Attorney Walker strongly asserted himself as a proponent of representation for young Black professionals on Broadway as an investor in the theater adaptation of Mama, I Want to Sing!. Since his work with Mama, I Want to Sing! Attorney Walker has continued to be an avid investor in Broadway plays and musicals, including The Temptations, Camelot, Piano Lessons, Sinatra, Here Lies Love, and 3 showings of MJ The Musical. Beyond these investments, Attorney Walker also represents The Museum of Broadway, which has been pivotal in highlighting the profound influence Broadway’s long history has had on New York City and the world of theater as a whole. Attorney Walker has also promoted or produced about 50 concerts, plays, and events with his second company JW Consulting and Stillwater Productions.
Beyond his legal career Attorney Walker has made a point to help advance and mentor young people interested in law. By having an internship program for law students; teaching and working with students at the University of Hartford’s Hart School of Music, UCONN Law School, Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, Boston College School of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law at TSU, and George Washington University. In this journey, he chose to write a book called, “This Business of Urban Music,”
which outlines and highlights important knowledge for young entertainment lawyers and musicians alike.
Lastly, Walker is an investor and part of the producer investor team with Alia Jones and Stephen Byrd of Front Row Production in New York, doing such plays as “The Piano Lesson”, “MJTheMusical”, “Ain’t Too Proud:The Temptations Story” and the upcoming, “Sinatra: I Did It My Way.”
While Attorney Walker is very proud of his impressive career and ongoing philanthropy, he is most proud of his four children and their accomplishments. Zion, 20, is his youngest son who is a baseball player at Eastern Connecticut State University studying sports management. His daughter and second youngest, Joi, 24, is a Fulbright Scholar and graduate of the University of Georgia and is currently a 2nd year law student at Howard University School of Law. His second oldest, James, 28, is currently a practicing
lawyer in New York City at Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. Finally, his oldest daughter, Jordan, is 30 and is a licensed real estate agent in Washington, D.C.