Jim Whitehead lectures and writes frequently on a variety of legal issues.  He was for many years a member of the faculty of the Port of Seattle’s annual international trade seminar and was a member of the organizing committee of the Pacific Northwest Admiralty Law Institute, which for many years sponsored seminars on issues of interest to the maritime industry.  He has spoken at seminars sponsored by that Institute, the University of Washington School of Law, The Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, and various insurance industry groups.  He chaired the International Maritime Law Conference held in Seattle in June 1996.  He is also the Associate Editor for Seattle of American Maritime Cases, which has published court decisions of interest to the maritime bar for more than ninety years.  He has been active for many years in the Maritime Law Association of the United States (MLA), serving a three-year term on its Board of Directors starting in May 2000, and serving on multiple ad hoc committees by special appointment of its President.  He is a member of the National Advisory Board of the Maritime Arbitration Association of the United States, a national association created in 2007 to provide cost-effective arbitration and mediation services in the maritime industry by specially qualified, experienced maritime lawyers.  He is one of two Seattle attorneys initially approved as arbitrators/mediators by the association and has served as an arbitrator in several disputes subject to the association’s rules.  He is also a contract arbitrator for NOAA’s Crab Rationalization Program for the Bering Sea Aleutian Island crab fisheries.

He enjoys an AV rating (the highest rating obtainable for legal ability and ethical standards) from the Martindale-Hubbell law directory.  He also enjoys a “Superb” rating from the Lawyergist legal rating service and was honored as one of the ten best admiralty lawyers in Seattle in a 2008 ranking by CEO Magazine, and a top admiralty and maritime lawyer in 2010 in Seattle Met magazine.