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View the video below featuring Jim in the NC Bar Association’s Members in Focus video series:

Jim Siemens

Family Law Specialist and Family Financial Mediator

Jim is a problem solver. He meets clients where they are in the moment, charts a course, and helps them arrive at a better place in their lives. Jim is motivated by the accomplishment realized when his seasoned skill-set serves his client in a uniquely positive way.

Positive relationships with clients, colleagues, and the bench matter to Jim. Ever mindful of credibility, Jim believes professionalism works to the benefit of his clients. Jim does not compromise a case, or his ethics, for short term gain, knowing that clients benefit most from advocacy grounded in core values.

Jim is interested in value-based leadership and lawyering.  He takes full responsibility for his job as a leader and lawyer in each case he accepts. Jim is equally committed to helping his clients accept their roles. Jim’s legal advice is not blurred by blame-shifting or distorted ego. Jim maintains that transparency and accountability in the attorney-client relationship can lead to extraordinary case outcomes.

Jim likes to bring clients through separation and divorce using the tactics that will best serve the client and the case. Each case Jim handles brings a new set of facts. Each case is dynamic. Some cases mirror warfare. Others, a business transaction. Jim succeeds in that diverse landscape because his skills as a litigator are matched by his ability to communicate and negotiate. Jim has the grit for war and the wisdom to avoid it when possible.

His legal skills have been honed by experience. Jim arrived in Asheville in 1994 and quickly developed his practice. Drug cases, capital murder cases, juvenile cases, and court-appointed cases throughout Western North Carolina put Jim in State and Federal Courtrooms in front of judges and juries. Jim gained solid trial experience early in his career.

Jim’s success in high profile cases drew clients with family law cases. Jim transitioned from criminal defense to family law over time. Jim discovered he preferred the nuanced attorney client relationship that forms in a family law case and gradually narrowed the scope of his practice to family law. In 2007, the State Bar certified Jim as a specialist in family law. He maintains the family law specialist certification by peer review and has entered his second decade in the specialty.

Today, Jim takes family law cases throughout Western North Carolina. He sees those cases from the initial consultation sometimes to mediation, sometimes to trial, and sometimes through appeal.  Jim has argued family law cases in the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, defending trial court wins. Jim’s ability to see a case from its infancy through the appellate process is well established in reported cases.

Jim was born in Russell, Manitoba, Canada in 1967. He grew up in N.Y. and N.C.  He graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a BA in English Literature in 1989. He graduated from Tulane University Law School in 1993.

Jim shares his life in Asheville with his wife, Deborah, and his daughter, Sophia. He is an avid cyclist and loves mountain sports. Jim values his community and contributes to its betterment in diverse ways.

Jim is a family law specialist, leading clients through a challenging process to a brighter future.

Representative Cases

• Paynich v. Paynich (COA 19-185) – Jim Siemens for the Father at trial and on appeal wherein the Court of Appeals held that the trial court properly concluded that the Mother’s extended visits with the minor child be supervised. 

• Tallent v.Postlewaite (COA 19-49) – Jim Siemens for the Wife at trial and on appeal wherein the Court of Appeals held that the trial court’s equitable distribution pretrial order identified, classified, and valued certain martial property which served as competent evidence in support of an equitable distribution ruling. 

• Kabasan v. Kabasan (COA 17-254) – Jim Siemens for the Wife at trial and on appeal in which the Court of Appeals found that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it accepted the testimony of the wife’s expert in forensic accounting and valuation.

• Lund v. Lund (COA 16-813) – Jim Siemens for the Husband at trial and on appeal in which the Court of Appeals held that the trial court properly found the Wife’s testimony on value not credible.

• Lund v. Lund (COA 15-175) – Jim Siemens for the Husband at trial and on appeal in which the Court of Appeals held that the Husband’s expert properly valued and distributed the Wife’s pension.

• Duncan v. Duncan (COA 12-399-2) – Jim Siemens for the Wife at trial and on appeal in which the Court of Appeals held that the Husband was equitably estopped from challenging the validity of a marriage.

• Sluder v. Sluder (COA 08-1188) – Jim Siemens for the Husband at trial and on appeal in which the Court of Appeals vacated an alimony ruling of the trial court.

• Inman v. Inman (COA 04-398) – Jim Siemens for the Husband at trial and on appeal in which the Court of Appeals vacated a child support ruling of the trial court. 2005 N.C. App. LEXIS 127.

Presentations & Publications

• Equitable Distribution in 4 Easy Steps, Buncombe County Bar Family Law from the Trenches CLE, January 2019

• Representing the Dependent Spouse, NCBA Family Law Section Annual Meeting, April 2016

• Retirement of the Supporting Spouse and Modification of Alimony, NCBA Family Law Intensive Seminar, February 2016

• At the Intersection of Family Law and Bankruptcy, NCBA Bankruptcy Section Meeting, November 2015

• Modification of Alimony for a Substantial Change in Circumstances, NCBA Family Law Section Meeting, October 2015

• Equitable Distribution of Pension and Retirement Plans, National Business Institute, August 2015

• Family Law and Bankruptcy, NCBA Annual Meeting, June 2015

• Changes to Appellate Jurisdiction in Family Law Cases, NCBA Family Forum, December 2013

• Law Practice Management, NCBA Law Practice Management Section Meeting, 2010