James D. Williams

I focus my practice on intellectual property law, immigration, and business.

I graduated from the University of Richmond School of Law and was accepted to the Virginia Bar in 2019. I earned the Intellectual Property Certificate as well as the Auzville Jackson Jr. award for excellence in intellectual property.

I am excited to assist artists, business owners, and content creators with their contract, trademark, and copyright concerns.

Since I began work with Tingen Law, PLLC, I have taken on more immigration matters. Here are some of the services I offer: asylum and removal proceedings, permanent residency petitions, fiance/spousal petitions, employment-based visas (H visas, PERM visas), O/P visas for athletes and qualifying people, Victims of qualifying crimes (U visas).

• Credit Cards Accepted

Eastern District of Virginia

Since 2020

Virginia

Virginia State Bar

ID Number: 95064

Since 2019

Attorney

Tingen Law, PLLC

2021 - Current

Attorney

Tingen & Williams, PLLC

2020 - 2021

Family Law cases such as divorce and custody, special immigrant juvenile status, contracts drafting and review, trademark and copyright law

Document Review/Contract Attorney

Trustpoint.One

2019 - 2020

Intern

Hitaffer & Hitaffer, PLLC

2018 - 2019

Assisted supervising attorney with patent and trademark prosecution

Legal Intern

Virginia Poverty Law Center

2017 - 2017

Conducted legal and non-legal research for family law issues, Drafted legal memoranda

University of Richmond School of Law

J.D. (2019) | Intellectual Property

2016 - 2019

Honors: Auzville Jackson Jr. Award, Intellectual Property Certificate, Order of Barristers, Pro Bono Certificate

Activities: Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Journal of Law & Technology, Law Peer Sexual Misconduct Advisor, Student Intellectual Property Law Association, Trial Advocacy Board

University of Tennessee - Knoxville

B.A. (2015) | Political Science, Philosophy, Business Administration

2012 - 2015

Activities: Visual Arts Committee, American Mock Trial Association, Tennessee Intercollegiate Supreme Court

Virginia State Bar  # 95064

Member

Current

Lawyers for the Arts

Chair

2020 - Current

Activities: Assisting artists and arts organizations in Virginia by providing legal information and connecting them to attorneys.

Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

2020 - Current

Greater Richmond Intellectual Property Lawyers Association

Member

2019 - Current

That's Probably Not Legal... or is it? A Lawyer AMA!, MAGFest, Silver Springs, MD

January 7, 2023

Lawyer AMA discussing copyright, trademark, and other legal areas related to the gaming industry.

Immigration Law in the Gaming Industry, PAX East, Boston, MA

May 2022

James & Jacob Tingen discussed visa options for players and others in the gaming industry, such as O/P visas and employment-based visas.

Tutorial Stage, Online

June 11, 2020

Tutorial Stage is a panel series for entry-level game developers, artists, and content creators generally. I spoke on "Getting Paid" regarding contractual issues artists may face and intellectual property. I also provided resources about contract terms and general legal implications of fan art. https://www.tutorial-stage.com/

Q. Can the arrears that I owe in child support be forgiven by my child, who is now 20 and self sufficient?

January 5, 2021

A: Child support can come from either a court order or through the Division of Child Support Enforcement. If it's not through one of these channels but by maybe an oral or mutual agreement of the parents, then you'll generally have more flexibility. If your child support comes from the court order or DCSE, then it gets much more complicated. The child's input ultimately is irrelevant, and if the other parent disagrees with your arrangement and you still have arrears grow further, then you could get in more trouble.

I would reach out to an attorney to go over your specific circumstances to see what would be recommended.

As a slight side note, I noticed that you're located in Oklahoma and put the location in Virginia. You'll also want to make sure that you speak with an attorney in the state where the child support order/arrangement originated in the event there are state specific laws that may change the advice. ... Read More

Q. Received my LLB in the UK and plan on doing an LLM over here before the Bar. Do you think that law firms would hire me?

October 20, 2020

A: If you want to practice law, then you're going to have to pass a bar exam. There are very few states that allow people who have only taken an LLM (and not a juris doctor "JD") program to sit for the bar exam. Virginia does not allow LLM students to sit for the bar exam here.

LLM Guide has some decent information here: https://llm-guide.com/articles/using-the-llm-to-take-the-american-bar-exam#:~:text=Of%20those%20thirty%20states%2C%20five,at%20an%20American%20school.

Once you are eligible and pass the bar exam, it will just come down to experience in an area. The biggest hurdle is passing the bar exam, though.

Q. Is it legal to screenshot a Getty Images image I have embedded into my website from that website and then post it?

August 4, 2020

A: Getty Images is not someone to mess around with. They are incredibly active in copyright infringement suits.

If they give you an embed feature, then they absolutely have terms and conditions on how the license works for that. I can practically guarantee, though will not without actually reading the terms and conditions, that taking a screenshot and sharing it is outside the terms and conditions of the license.

Copyright law is heavily dependent on licensing and proper authorizations, so if you can do that, then you should. Otherwise, you'll always run the risk of copyright infringement, even if you aren't using the work commercially.