Jim Kauffman
Rather than losing, Jim Kauffman prefers to think of it as “coming in second.” At three pivotal times in his life, Kauffman has lost first place and learned a lesson. The first was when he ran for President of the student body at Lynchburg College. He lost by eight votes and felt bad because he had at least nine friends who didn’t vote. But he didn’t blame them for his second place finish. Coming in second academically in his law school graduating class was not considered a loss, but an achievement.
After many years of involvement in Kiwanis International, Jim ran for International President, and came in second. He considers it an honor that out of 900,000 Kiwanians, he was one of two nominated for the post. His opponent was a “really capable individual who did a good job with the position,” he says.
The most important thing to Kauffman is personal relationships. He became involved with Kiwanis in an attempt to meet people and have friends outside the law profession. Shortly after entering practice, he had become involved with local Bar Associations and decided that he didn’t want to deal with lawyers all day and outside of work too. Now he considers the friends he has made through Kiwanis the best of all. “I have made friends not only locally and district-wide, but also all over the US and the world. I consider one of my best friends to be one who lives in Canada, and I have great friends from France, Iceland, Japan, the Philippines and many other places around the world.”
Dealing with people is an important aspect of Kauffman’s practice. Besides being well versed in the areas of business, commercial banking, surety, construction, and tort litigation, he also practices in the area of estate planning, estate administration and estate litigation, and serves as a Commissioner in Chancery for the City of Richmond. All of these areas require that he be well attuned to the problems and issues of the parties involved. He has represented families into the fourth generation in some instances and is sometimes called upon by families to provide historical perspective to family matters.
Family is a priority and early in his career he adopted the habit of coming home from the office early to be with his children and to have a family dinner. After the children were asleep, he would then turn to the stacks of files he had brought home and put in several more hours of legal work. He and his wife will be married 49 years this August and are the parents of two daughters and grandparents of four “extremely bright and talented” grandchildren.
Never a proponent of “winning is everything,” Kauffman muses that “coming in second may often be the best thing.”
