James S. Wilson

James S. Wilson is respected by his peers as one of the finest trial lawyers in the area. He was the managing member of Brault Graham, LLC (formerly Brault, Graham, Scott & Brault) for thirty-five years.

He has broad experience in representing individuals in serious personal injury cases and has regularly handled jury trials throughout our region. Using his legal expertise and reputation among other lawyers for fairness and sound judgment, Mr. Wilson also provides mediation and arbitration services for parties who wish to resolve their disputes outside the courtroom.

He graduated from Washington & Lee University School of Law Cum Laude in 1973. Thereafter, he served clerkships for the Honorable James H. Pugh, Chief Judge for the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Maryland, and the Honorable Plummer M. Shearin, Associate Judge of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland, before becoming associated with Brault, Graham, Scott & Brault. Mr. Wilson has been a speaker for the Montgomery County Bar Association and Maryland State Bar Association and has also provided seminars to various insurance companies on coverage and litigation issues. He has served on the Judicial Selections Committees of the Montgomery County Bar Association and the Maryland Association of Defense Trial Counsel.

Mr. Wilson was elected and inducted into The American College of Trial Lawyers in 2001. Membership is by invitation only and is limited to the top one percent (1%) of trial attorneys in the State. In a 2004 survey of lawyers, published in Washingtonian Magazine, Mr. Wilson was rated as one of Washington’s best civil defense attorneys. He was again selected in a 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015 survey of lawyers published in Washingtonian Magazine, as one of Washington’s best civil defense attorneys.  In 2022, he received Washingtonian’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was selected for the Top Lawyers Hall of Fame. He was selected by his peers to be included in The Best Lawyers in America, in 2006, and each year thereafter to the present, in the specialty of Personal Injury Litigation. He was named “2018 Lawyer of the Year” by the Best Lawyers of America. He was also selected by is fellow lawyers to be included in the first publication of Maryland Super Lawyers and as one of the top lawyers in the Washington, D. C. Metro Area in the first publication of D.C. Super Lawyers. He was again selected to be included in publications of Maryland Super Lawyers and D.C. Super Lawyers each year thereafter to the present.

In 2014, Mr. Wilson was inducted into the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, a professional association of premier civil – trial mediators and arbitrators. Membership in the Academy is by invitation only and through a vetting procedure intended to ensure that only the top 10% of ADR practitioners are invited to join the association.

Lawyer Organizations

• Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers
• Defense Research Institute
• Maryland Defense Lawyers Association

Past Leadership

• Member, Trial Court Judicial Nominating Commission of Maryland (2003)

Publications and Reported Cases

• GEICO v. Belcher, 282 Md. 718, 387 A.2d 770 (1978)
• Larimore v. American Insurance Co., 314 Md. 617, 552 A.2d 889 (1989)
• Seites v. McGinley, 84 Md.App. 292, 578 A.2d 840 (1990)