James B. Lake, Attorney

James B. Lake practices in the areas of media law, intellectual property and general litigation. Jim represents clients in state and federal courts and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, and he frequently renders advice on newsgathering, trademark, and copyright matters.  He is an adjunct professor at the Stetson University College of Law and a frequent lecturer on the public's rights of access to governmental records and proceedings. A former reporter, Jim covered municipal government for The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times and worked as a weekend police reporter in the Clearwater area. He also interned as a copy editor and reporter for The News and Courier and The Evening Post in Charleston, South Carolina and as a reporter for WCIV-TV in Charleston.

Jim is a member of The Florida Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. Jim is also a member of the American Bar Association's Forum on Communications Law and The Florida Bar's Media Law Committee.

He is the author or co-author of numerous articles on litigation and First Amendment topics, including Restraining False Light: Constitutional and Common Law Limits on a "Troublesome Tort ," 61 Fed. Comm. L. J. 625 (2009); Speaking Legally and Freely; Lawyers, Web Sites, and the First Amendment, 58.S.C.L. Rev. 871 (2007); The Reporters Privilege in Florida (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press 2002 & 2007) (posted at www.rcfp.org/privilege); and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission - A Sad Day for the Freedom of Speech?, which appeared in Communications Lawyer (Winter 2004), the quarterly publication of the ABA's Forum on Communications Law.

Jim also wrote Of Crime and Consequence: Should Newspapers Report Rape Complainants' Names?, 6 J. Mass Media Ethics 106 (1991), which won the Carol Burnett Award as the nation's best journalism ethics paper by a college student in 1990, and Lawyers, Please Check Your First Amendment Rights at the Bar: The Problem of State-Mandated Bar Dues and Compelled Speech, 50 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1833 (1993). 

Jim earned his B.A., Phi Beta Kappa magna cum laude in journalism in 1990 from Washington and Lee University. He earned his J.D. cum laude in 1994 from the Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he was Notes and Comments Editor of the Washington and Lee Law Review, won American Jurisprudence Awards in Federal Income Taxation II and the American Public Law Process, received the Harry A. Berry Jr. Scholarship, and was a member of Phi Delta Phi.

Jim and his wife, Diane, live in Tampa with their children, Thomas and Madison.  They attend Hyde Park United Methodist Church.