Jim Jenkins received his bachelors degree at University of California in San Diego and his law degree, with honors, from Florida State University College of Law. Upon graduation he accepted an appointment as an Assistant State Attorney or prosecutor in the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, Sarasota/Bradenton, Florida where he worked through 1988. In late 1988 he became an Assistant Public Defender in Pensacola, Florida. After his appointment as an Assistant State Public Defender he became one of only three Assistant Federal Public Defenders for the Northern District of Florida. He has been in private practice in the panhandle of Florida for 15 years.

Jim is a past president of the Northwest Florida Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He also belongs to the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers. Jim has taught at seminars and has published articles dealing with the criminal law. He is also a 2003 graduate of famed trial lawyer Gerry Spence not for profit Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming. The Trial Lawyer's College is an extremely intensive, life changing program for experienced trial lawyers lasting more than three weeks. Jim continues to be very active with the Trial Lawyers College.

Although Jim has been practicing trial work and criminal law for more than 20 years, he believes that one cannot be a truly accomplished trial lawyer without developing yourself as a person. Jim feels that you have to understand who you are before you can understand judges, people on juries, prosecutors, witnesses and clients. Jim also employs a significant amount of re-enactment, or psychodrama, in his work with clients to fully develop the story of his clients' cases.