James (“Jim”) W. A. Ladner has practiced law and served on various non-profit boards during his career, including having participated in the founding and launch of the energy-focused non-profit, Fresh Energy.
Jim began his legal career at the Minneapolis-based Robins Kaplan law firm where he handled product liability, employment, insurance, and other commercial matters for individuals, commercial interests, and organizations. Jim began a series of in-house legal engagements in 1992, first with medical device start-up SCIMED Life Systems, then Boston Scientific, and finally medical device innovator St. Jude Medical. Jim spent over twenty years at St. Jude Medical handling legal matters in a wide variety of areas and was named attorney of the year by the Minnesota Lawyer publication in 2006.
He has been a frequent speaker and panelist at continuing legal education conferences throughout his career and has served on the Boards of the Cedar Cultural Center and the Advocates for Human Rights. Jim also served as the initial Board chair of Fresh Energy. Jim earned his J.D. from the University of Minnesota and obtained a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. He presently also serves on the Boards of the non-profits “Footprint Project” and the J. Aron Allen Legacy Foundation. Jim enjoys cooking, playing guitar, skiing, hiking, biking, canoeing—and a good book.