James M. McNeel

Biography

Jim maintains a fiduciary litigation practice exclusively in the areas of trusts, estates, guardianships, closely held entities and other related litigation.  Jim handles claims by and against estate administrators, trustees, beneficiaries, guardians, powers of attorney and general and limited partners relating to breaches of fiduciary duties, challenges to documents based on lack of capacity and undue influence, and interpretation and modification of wills, trusts and other agreements.

The Rest of the Story

Jim is a fifth-generation San Antonian.  He graduated from Alamo Heights High School in 1985.  Jim started his college career at Southwest Texas State University before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin where he graduated in 1989 with a degree in History and Economics.  After graduating from college, he worked for a year and a half in the oil fields in south Texas and the Gulf of Mexico before attending Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C.

In law school, Jim met Nicole and they were married in 1993.  After graduating from law school in 1994, Jim and Nicole moved to Miami, Florida and both practiced law there until 2002.  In 2000, while still working full time, Jim went back to law school at the University of Miami and received his Master of Law (LLM) in Estate Planning in 2002.  The primary purpose of getting his LLM was to become a specialist in trust and estate litigation.  While in Miami, Jim worked at the statewide firm of Wicker Smith practicing in the areas of medical malpractice and probate litigation from 1995 to 2002.

After earning his Master of Law degree from the University of Miami, Jim and Nicole moved to San Antonio where Jim worked for Akin Gump in the litigation section.  In 2005, Jim joined the San Antonio firm of Oppenheimer Blend focusing his practice on probate and fiduciary litigation.  In 2011, Oppenheimer Blend merged with Strasburger and Price.  Jim remained there until 2018, when he joined Chamberlain Hrdlicka where he remained until January of 2023.

Jim and Nicole are passionate about design having extensively remodeled three homes in Miami and San Antonio.  So, in 2018, Nicole retired from her law practice and she and Jim bought Compton’s, a third-generation lighting and home interiors store in San Antonio.  Jim and Nicole rebranded the store naming it St. James Place.  They are the largest retailer of lampshades in South Texas and continue to offer a curated selection of new and vintage lighting, original art and home décor, as well as a lighting creation and repair service.

Jim and Nicole have two daughters: Catherine, a recent graduate of Tulane who works in finance in New York City, and Juliette, who is studying business and fashion media at SMU in Dallas.  Although they are now empty nesters, Jim and Nicole stay busy with their three standard poodles, Angus, Pippa and Archie.  Jim enjoys golf, sailing, skiing and travel with his family and friends.