Phone: (919) 787-7711
Facsimile: (919) 787-7710
jratledge@wrlaw.com
Bio
James “Jamie” E.R. Ratledge is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Wilson Ratledge, which was formed in 2001, and has over 25 years’ experience as an attorney. He began his practice representing businesses and corporations in product liability actions, as well as banking and financial institutions in transactional claims. He then turned his attention to representing individuals, trusts, and families who had been placed in abusive tax shelters, which resulted in a class-action suit and significant recoveries to parties in North Carolina, New York, Florida, and on the West Coast. Now, Mr. Ratledge represents individuals, businesses, and corporations in workers’ compensation claims, and handles employment benefit matters, as well as general commercial litigation.
Mr. Ratledge graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts. While in college, he received the President’s Scholarship and was a Lyndon Banes Johnson Scholar. After graduation, Mr. Ratledge worked for United States Congressman James McClure Clarke in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor.
Mr. Ratledge has lectured and taught extensively on workers’ compensation and employment law to state and local governments, industrial and manufacturing associations, business owners and associates, risk managers and adjusters, and medical professionals, at seminars and at the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference.
Mr. Ratledge has been recognized as one of America’s Top 100 Attorneys, a recognition which is based upon a broad array of criteria, including peer review, third-party research and analysis, professional experience, ethical standards, significant case results, reputation, and community impact.
Mr. Ratledge is a DRC Certified Mediator and earned Martindale Hubbell’s® coveted “AV Preeminent” rating. Additionally, he has received the North Carolina Super Lawyers distinction since 2006.
Areas of Practice
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Business Litigation
- Civil Litigation
- Employment Law
- Workers’ Compensation Defense
Education
- J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, 1987
- B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1984
Bar Admissions
- North Carolina, 1988
- United States Supreme Court, 1992
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, 1988
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, 1993
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, 1996
Professional Activities
- North Carolina Bar Association
- Wake County Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys
- Defense Research Institute