Before joining the School of Law faculty in 1980, James Durham taught law at the University of California at Davis and practiced in San Francisco, concentrating in real estate transactions law. He enjoyed doing real estate transactions work because ideally no one loses. “You have to make it work for both parties,” he says. “I like solving problems and creating those win-win situations.”

Professor Durham has been elected Professor of the Year five times by UDSL students. Since 2003 he has been Chair of the Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Section of the American Bar Association. From 1997-2002 he was a member of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Commission on Certification of Attorneys as Specialists, serving as Vice Chair in 2001 and Chair in 2002.

Among his publications is a three volume treatise on Ohio real property law written for use by practitioners as well as a casebook for use in advanced real estate transactions classes that emphasizes the practical aspects of real estate practice. In addition, Professor Durham has enjoyed the challenge of serving on the Planning Commission in the Dayton suburb in which he resides because it allows him to practice what he preaches. “It lets me take and deal with the practical application of what I teach my students,” he says. He feels that his work outside the classroom makes him better inside the classroom. “Rather than just teach law,” he says, “I prepare my students to practice law.”

Courses
LAW 6104 Real Property I
LAW 6932 Capstone - Commercial Real Estate Transactions
LAW 6829 Professional Responsibility 

Publications

• Commercial Real Estate Transactions: A Project and Skill-Orient Approach (editor and coauthor with Cameron, Stark and White, LEXIS Law Publishing 2001)
• Ohio Real Property Law and Practice, 5th Ed. (3 vols., with Curry, The Michie Company/LEXIS Law Publishing 1996 and 1997, with annual supplements)
• Ohio Land Contract Law, 19 University of Dayton Law Review 563, 587 (with Curry, 1994)
• Towards Resolving Prosecutor Conflicts of Interest, 6 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 415, 500 (with Brenner, 1993)
• Ohio Land Contracts Revisited, 14 University of Dayton Law Review 451, 502 (1989)
• Variances, Chapter 38 in The Law of Zoning and Planning 1-87 (Arden H. Rathkopf, ed., Clark Boardman 1988)
• The Supreme Court Fails to Decide the Inverse Condemnation Issue: MacDonald, Sommer & Frates v. Yolo County, 32 Washington University Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law 69, 90 (1987)
• MacDonald, Sommer & Frates v. Yolo County: The Supreme Court Again Dodges the Inverse Condemnation Issue, 9 Zoning and Planning Law Report 65, 72 (1986)
  Reprinted as MacDonald v. Yolo County: Continuing Questions on Inverse Condemnation, Chapter 8 in 1987 Zoning and Planning Law Handbook (Gordon, ed. 1987)
• Private Revitalization and Low-Income Housing, 9 Zoning and Planning Law Report 41, 47 (with Sheldon, 1986)
  Reprinted as Housing in Gentrifying Areas: Social Benefits and Policy Options, Chapter 24 in 1987 Zoning and Planning Law Handbook (Gordon, ed. 1987)
• Efficient Just Compensation: An Exchange of Views, 12 University of Dayton Law Review 45, 56 (with Gerla, 1986)
• Mitigating the Effects of Private Revitalization on Housing for the Poor, 70 Marquette Law Review 1, 40 (with Sheldon, 1986)
• Efficient Just Compensation as a Limit on Eminent Domain, 69 Minnesota Law Review 1277, 1313 (1985)
• In Defense of Strict Foreclosure: A Legal and Economic Analysis of Mortgage Foreclosure, 36 South Carolina Law Review 461, 510 (1985)
• Forfeiture of Residential Land Contracts in Ohio: The Need for Further Reform of a Reform Statute, 16 Akron Law Review 397, 446 (1983)