James Sheets (Ph.D., J.D., M.A., Attorney at Law) is an experienced multi-tasked professional with over twenty years of experience working at various levels in business, higher education, legal studies, and international consulting. As an attorney and educator, he has served as an ex-pat teaching business systems, international law, business law, and legal studies at the global level. His recent research sorties have included data privacy, comparative legal systems, and international law.
He taught business management for several years at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, as well as law, legal systems, and related social science courses as a faculty member or guest lecturer at universities across the globe, including Boston University, the American University of Bulgaria, the American University of Bosnia, Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Jinan University in China.
Attorney James Sheets has maintained a continued interest in international law and legal scholarship and has a forthcoming peer-reviewed article on the use of force under the Law of Nations as articulated by the Dutch legal jurist Hugo Grotius. He has also published an article under trade cover on international legal education, “Observations on the Chinese Legal Profession.” His Ph.D. examined the development of the social sciences within the context of civil society and was favorably reviewed by a major publishing house and is now in final draft.
James Sheets is a nontraditional professional who self-financed his graduate and legal education, receiving his Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of Rochester in New York and his Juris Doctor degree in law. He was awarded a Carnegie Fellowship and spent a year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland as a post-doctoral scholar.
He considers learning a life process and sees himself as a lifelong learner who excels in cross-generational and cross-cultural environments. While in Saudi Arabia, his work was distinctive in teaching Shariah compliance, international business law, and legal frameworks within a curriculum embracing a global perspective. His work in China similarly integrated the Chinese civil code, corporate law, and domestic law governing companies and joint ventures within the broader framework of international contract law and comparative legal systems. His work in Bosnia and Serbia after the conflict reflected a comparable inclusiveness, straddling the divide between Bosnians and Serbs while fostering societal harmonization and civic engagement.
At the local level, Attorney Sheets has assisted recent immigrants navigating the legal system and related family and community matters. He has worked with nonprofits and underserved populations with limited access to the judicial system, helping on residential, probate, immigration, and community legal matters in the Des Moines area. He is also a committed cyclist and jogger, enjoys playing jazz and classical guitar, is a member of the Greenwood Neighborhood Association, and is an active supporter of the YMCA.
He began his career teaching at the secondary level in Minnesota and Wisconsin and possesses various licenses in education along with bar admissions before state and federal courts in several states.