Ryan H. James

Since 2012, Ryan James has owned and operated James Law, LLC, a criminal-defense trial and appellate firm located in White Oak, Pennsylvania.

Ryan is a respected trial and appellate practitioner. His trial work has involved trying cases in both federal and state court to judges and juries. He’s successfully defended everything from first-degree murder to serious sex-assault cases to DUIs in 18 different counties throughout the Commonwealth.

In his appellate practice, Ryan has briefed and argued approximately 40 cases in the Superior Court, Commonwealth Court, and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Some of his cases have set precedent in the areas of sentencing, post-conviction litigation, SORNA registration, and juvenile-dependency proceedings. Ryan has also served as PCRA counsel, privately and by appointment, in nearly 100 post-conviction proceedings.

In the area of criminal defense, Ryan has consistently been recognized as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyers’ Rising Star since 2018. In 2019, he sought a seat on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and was “Recommended” by the Allegheny County Bar Association as having “the legal ability, experience and temperament to excel as a judge” of that court.

Ryan is a member of the selective Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and he’s a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Allegheny County and Westmoreland County bar associations. Ryan is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, Michigan, the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Eastern District of Michigan.

Ryan is a magna cum laude graduate of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, where he was a Managing Editor of the Law Review, and a cum laude graduate of Allegheny College.

Ryan and his wife, Kristen, have two young children and live in Peters Township.