James C. Nieland - Chicago, IL

Overview

James C. Nieland has practiced law in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, accomplishing extensive legal successes in the areas of family law and business litigation. Mr. Nieland has successfully represented clients in extremely complex and sophisticated family law matters, including divorce and child custody, throughout his legal career. He has a winning record representing parties in dissolution of marriage actions where the correct identification and distribution of marital property was at risk, and in defending fathers being prosecuted in support enforcement actions by state authorities. His tenacious representation of clients at the appellate level on issues involving custody modification to permit out-of-state removal, and termination of parental rights, has made him greatly respected by his peers.

While he was practicing law in Nebraska, courts there appointed Mr. Nieland as an attorney and guardian ad litem in many life-altering cases involving child abuse and neglect, given his passion for safeguarding children.

Notably, while practicing in his native Iowa, Mr. Nieland prepared a persuasive and successful pre-trial brief in a highly complex case resulting in his client being awarded a $10 million verdict that the Iowa Supreme Court sustained on appeal.

Additionally, Mr. Nieland is dedicated to volunteer service beyond the legal profession, by serving on the board of directors of a local Nebraska chapter of the American Red Cross. There, he oversaw relief efforts to assist individuals, families and businesses in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa devastated by extensive flooding of the Missouri River in 2011.

Mr. Nieland obtained his Juris Doctor from the College of Law at the University of Iowa and served as a distinguished editor of its international law journal, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems. Before his appointment as editor, Mr. Nieland published Executive Suspension of National Elections: Sacrificing an American Dream to Avoid a Spanish Nightmare?, 15 Transnat'l L. & Contemp. Probs. 389 (Fall 2005). He further served as a student member of the College of Law's Academic Standard of Review Committee.

Prior to law school, Mr. Nieland obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Knox College, where he majored in English and Spanish.