James Bryant founded and co-owns National Litigation Law Group. Throughout his career, he has innovated solutions for a wide variety of complicated problems.

He led the litigation against the NCAA that enabled a small NAIA school in Texas to become a full member of the NCAA Division I without waiting the full probationary period, which ultimately led many other institutions to follow, fundamentally changing the landscape of collegiate athletics.

He also fashioned the use of immunity for the first time in an NCAA investigation that not only preserved a student-athlete’s eligibility at what is now a Big 12 football program but also resulted in lessening the sanctions against that university’s athletic program.

As Special Counsel charged with investigating the university’s handling of sexual assaults at both a Big 10 and a Big 12 university, his work led to the implementation of new and improved practices and procedures dealing with these issues.

He has also served in-house positions at a number of universities, including The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was Special Counsel to the Boards of the University of Iowa and The Regents for the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges (Oklahoma State University).

He has taught at the University of Louisville, Wichita State University, and Oklahoma City University School of Law. He has given guest lectures at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the William and Mary School of Law, and the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Bryant became a Tower Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin in 2023. He has served as a board member for three liberal arts colleges and two national operating non-profits.

As a professional sports attorney, he represented four NBA All-Stars among the over 30 players for whom he was an agent, and represented dozens more as their lawyer. He also represented a Division One Conference.

He also owns a film company in Los Angeles, Jesse James Films. His film “What The Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears” was released in over 100 theaters in 2023 and was nominated and a finalist for Critics’ Choice Music Documentary Of The Year.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE
Public Office:
Member, Oklahoma House of Representatives
Assistant District Attorney, Oklahoma
Special Judge, Oklahoma
Associate District Judge, Oklahoma
District Judge, Oklahoma

ADMISSIONS
Oklahoma
District of Columbia
Texas
Missouri

BAR & PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
Oklahoma Advisory Committee to The United States Civil Rights Commission (Member)
Former Editorial Board member, Journal of College and University Law, Notre Dame Law School

PUBLISHED WORKS
Book co-author “Bridging the Gaps – A Field Guide to Networks,” (Lucas Park Books, St. Louis, Missouri, 2008)
Book author “Liberal Arts Colleges in Crises. The Transformation of the Eureka College Board,” (Southwestern University Press, Winfield, Kansas, 2012)
Co-author “Laws, Not Lawyers: How States Can Protect Nonprofit Leaders From Litigation,” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, June 2, 2007)
Co-author “Protecting Nonprofit Directors and Scarce Resources,” (Journal of Payment Systems Law, July/August 2007)
Co-author “Representing the Oklahoma Athlete in NCAA Investigations,” (62 Oklahoma Bar Journal 3815, 1991)
Author “Retroactive Taxation: A Constitutional Analysis of the Minimum Tax on Intangible Drilling Costs,” (36 Oklahoma Law Review 107, 1983)

EDUCATION
Phillips University, B.S.,1975
Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, J.D., 1978
Brandeis University, M.A., Crown Fellow, 1980
Dartmouth College, M.A., 2001
University of Pennsylvania, Ed.D., Honors for thesis, 2007