James A. Francis

JAMES A. FRANCIS has been admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third, Fourth and Ninth Circuits, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, as well as the Pennsylvania and New Jersey state courts. He is a 1992 graduate of Muhlenberg College (B.A., cum laude) and a 1995 graduate of the Temple University Beasley School of Law. In law school, he won the 1995 Wapner, Newman & Wigrizer, P.C. award for excellence in civil trial advocacy, was awarded outstanding oral advocacy and served as President of the Student Bar Association. Following law school, Mr. Francis was associated with Kolsby, Gordon, Robin, Shore & Rothweiler in Philadelphia. Since 1998, he has focused his practice in consumer protection litigation, with a particular concentration in fair credit reporting, fair debt collection practices and consumer class actions.

In 2004, Mr. Francis was the youngest lawyer to be ranked in the Top 100 Superlawyers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia Magazine and Pennsylvania Super Lawyers magazine. He was subsequently ranked a Top 100 Pennsylvania Superlawyer in 2008, 2012, 2014-2018 and has been regularly ranked one of the Top 100 Superlawyers in Philadelphia since 2004. He has lectured and spoken extensively on the FCRA and has published articles on the subject as well. He has appeared on various news programs including the Today Show and PBS NewsHour to discuss consumer-related issues and was featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer’s biographical “Question & Answer” segment in February of 2009. Mr. Francis argued the seminal FCRA case of Cortez v. Trans Union before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He has been certified to serve as Class counsel in over 35 consumer class actions, has been trial counsel in two class actions to successful plaintiff’s verdicts, and has served as counsel to some of the largest FCRA settlements in history.

In May of 2014, Mr. Francis was presented with Community Legal Services of Philadelphia’s Equal Justice Award at its annual Breakfast of Champions. He was also selected as one of a small national group of plaintiffs’ lawyers to be featured in Law 360’s Titans of the Plaintiff’s Bar series in October of 2014. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA).