A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Hofstra University Law School, James began his legal career in the New York County District Attorney’s Office as an assistant district attorney in Trial Bureau 60. During his career with that office, he tried numerous cases to verdict, including homicides. He also held several supervisory positions, overseeing prosecutors handling misdemeanor and domestic violence cases. In addition, he honed his investigative skills as a member of the Asian Gang Unit and the Investigation Division Central Bureau investigating white-collar crimes. James joined the Kings County DA’s Office in May 2017 as Deputy Bureau Chief for the Supreme Court in the Grey Zone, where he became the point person for the zone on DNA evidence, and second sat and supervised several felony hearings and trials. James immediately embraced building relationships between the office and the communities he serves within two weeks of his arrival in the office, he co-emceed the KCDA Asian American Heritage Month event, and he has continued to serve as one of several informal office ambassadors to Brooklyn’s growing Asian American community, as well as attending Precinct Council meetings, National Night Out Against Crime, and the West Indian Day Parade.

While assigned to the Grey Zone, James secured justice for victims in several significant cases, including helping supervise the investigation and grand jury presentation of a fatal hit-and-run drunken driver incident in which several pedestrians, including the deceased, were struck, and injured while standing on the sidewalk. In July 2018, James was transferred to the Green Zone as its Supreme Court Deputy. In addition to being primarily responsible for overseeing the Green Zone’s preparation for and conduct of felony trials and vertical riding assignments, he also became the Green Zone’s DNA point person and continues to second-seat felony proceedings. Through his work as a Green Zone Deputy, James has demonstrated his commitment to the principles of Justice 2020 and our intention to reduce incarceration while focusing the resources of our office on the serious drivers of crime. James is active in the criminal justice legal community. In February 2019, James was promoted to the position of Bureau Chief of the Green Zone, the second Asian Pacific American to serve as Bureau Chief at a major trial bureau in a prosecutors’ office in New York City.

In 2008, he helped form the Prosecutors’ Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) and is presently one of its Co-Chairs. From 2011 until 2015 James was also a member of AABANY’s Board of Directors. Additionally, since 2010, he has been a member of the New York State Advisory Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure, which makes legislative recommendations to the Chief Administrative Judge of New York State. James also participates as a trainer and lecturer in the DA’s office’s New NYPD Officer Training program. In his spare time, James is also involved in the Boy Scouts, having been an Adult Troop Leader since 2013 and the Troop’s Scoutmaster since 2016.