Charles James

James wields a big stick as general counsel to one of the world's largest oil companies. While managing hundreds of cases, he has used that power to find new ways to hold down litigation costs while getting good results for Chevron. He may be facing a tough year, though. Final arguments currently are being made in a $6 billion environmental lawsuit against the oil giant on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorians; a federal judge in Northern California recently OK'd a human rights complaint stemming from the death of two protesters at one of its facilities in Nigeria and another price-fixing charge has been filed against the company.