Jim graduated from Charleston Catholic High School in Charleston, West Virginia, where in 1964 he played on a football team that was undefeated for two years and had a winning streak of twenty-one games and won the 1962-63 Catholic State Championship. As a senior, he was voted by his teammates as the football team's most valuable player for the 1963-64 season. In addition to playing football, he also participated in basketball and baseball.
Jim later graduated from West Virginia State College. He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1969. While attending West Virginia State he worked for the West Virginia Laborers Trust Fund. He also continued to work at Kroger, a job that he had started while he was in high school.
While in law school at the West Virginia College of Law, Jim was a dorm proctor at the Towers Dormitory Complex and was also a tutor for the football and basketball teams. While in law school, Jim also participated in the volunteer legal aid clinic where he worked under current Supreme Court Justice Larry Starcher. He graduated from the College in 1972 and has been a trial lawyer ever since.
