James Vale

Contracts and operating agreements. The first draft is the one you send.

James opened the Raleigh office in 2009 with a folding table and a box of operating-agreement precedents. He drafts the vendor, employment and formation documents the firm is known for — short, specific, and readable by a non-lawyer on the first pass. He still takes the 48-hour review files when the queue is long.

Before Harrow & Vale he spent four years in-house at a Research Triangle software company, which is why his indemnities do not read like they were copied from a 1998 asset purchase. Super Lawyers Rising Star, then Super Lawyers, business/corporate, 2016–2026.