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In Memoriam: James B. “Jim” Maxwell
James B. “Jim” Maxwell died Jan. 4, 2026. He was 84.
Maxwell served as president of NCAJ, then the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, in 1987-87. He was the first person to serve as both the president of the NCATL and the North Carolina Bar Association.
Mary Ann Tally, who served as NCAJ president a few years after Maxwell, recalls working with him when she was NCAJ Education Vice President.
“He was a fabulous leader,” she said. “He was fit as a fiddle, ramrod straight – just a great leader. The Bar Association picked him after his term as Academy president because he was just so well-respected.”
Tally also remembered how much Maxwell loved to coach swimming.
According to his obituary, after founding and coaching a swim team at the YMCA, Maxwell discovered that Durham’s Jordan High School didn’t have a swim team, and he volunteered to create and coach the high school program, continuing for nearly 30 years, rising before 5 a.m. for practices and tinkering with relay lineups in his study at home in the evening. Maxwell led the Jordan Jellyfish to five state championships and 17 regional championships, coaching his three children along the way. Many of his former swimmers said that he helped mold them into the adults they became; Maxwell said the kids helped keep him young. He was inducted into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame and served on the national board of the High School Athletic Association.
His passion for mentoring also led him to also be a coach and advisor for the Duke Law School’s National Moot Court Team, which won a national competition.
Life and Career
He grew up in Virginia’s lower Tidewater region, graduated from Randolph-Macon College, attended Duke School of Law on a moot court scholarship and later founded the Durham law firm of Maxwell, Freeman and Bowman PA.
Guy Crabtree, who served as NCAJ president from 2012-13, came to know Maxwell when he began practicing law in Durham.
“He was a good guy, a terrific lawyer and dedicated his life to the service of others,” Crabtree said.
Maxwell’s tenure in leadership was relatively early in the history of NCAJ, and he was one of the leaders that helped form NCAJ into what it has become, part of the group that was helping the academy in its teenage years, Crabtree recalled.
Crabtree had occasion to work on civil litigation cases alongside Maxwell and against him as well.
“We could disagree without being disagreeable,” he said.
Throughout Maxwell’s career he served on many boards related to the legal profession including as board chair of Legal Aid Society of NC, on the board of Lawyers Mutual Insurance.
Accolades included YMCA Layman Distinguished Service Award, Randolph-Macon Distinguished Alumni Award, and the Duke University’s School of Law’s Charles S. Rhyne Award. The Durham County Bar and 14th Judicial District Bar awarded its first Centennial Award to him for community service, and the N.C. Bar awarded him the I. Beverly Lake Award for Public Service.
In Westminster Presbyterian Church, he served as an elder, deacon and Sunday school teacher. He donated countless hours working with nonprofits, including Urban Ministries and the Durham Arts Council. Together, Jim and his wife Beth co-earned an award for Lifetime Service to the Durham Public Schools.
Gov. Mike Easley awarded Maxwell the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and the mayor of Durham proclaimed May 26, 2002 as Jim Maxwell Day for his service to youth. He was named Father of the Year by the Durham Merchants Association and “No. 1 Dad,” according to at least three or four coffee mugs and Christmas gifts from his children.
Maxwell moved from Durham, NC to Lancaster County PA in 2016 to be near family after his retirement in 2014. According to his obituary, he lived with frontotemporal dementia for many years before his death. The family is planning a celebration of life service later this year in North Carolina.
