James M. Loveless, a nationally recognized family law attorney and Fort Worth raconteur, died Aug. 11 after a brief illness at the age of 82. Known as \u201cJim\u201d to his professional colleagues, \u201cJimmy\u201d to his friends and \u201cPops\u201d to his family, he was an early advocate for equal treatment of spouses in child custody cases and a fierce courtroom adversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A fourth-generation Fort Worth native, he threw a Fort Worth Star-Telegram paper route at 8 years old, well before the allowable age. He graduated from R.L. Paschal High School, received his bachelor\u2019s degree from Texas Tech University and returned home to work in unrelated pursuits before uprooting to attend the South Texas College of Law in Houston with the support of his spouse, Kitty, daughter of long-time Tarrant County Sheriff Lon Evans.<\/p>\n
Eschewing rookie attorney-client fare of debt collection, minor criminal infractions or civil disputes when he opened his practice in Fort Worth, he focused on family law, eventually becoming one of the first board-certified family law specialists in Texas. Among cases that reached the public arena was his 1991 representation of tennis star Martina Navratilova in an unprecedented palimony dispute brought by her female partner, which eventually was settled out of court.<\/p>\n
Until his recent illness, he was still going to the office on a daily basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t play golf, I don\u2019t play cards so I work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His family and friends knew another side of him. With Kitty as a fellow rider, he organized the \u201cBoozefighters,\u201d a motorcycle club of midlife professionals like him who traveled throughout the United States and Europe on Harley-Davidsons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The romance with fast machines was consistent with his youth. His family recalls that he would dismantle parts of his mother\u2019s Buick when he was in high school, including the tailpipes, and sneak the car into Saturday night drag races to try to win extra spending money. He had to reconfigure the car before dawn so his mother could drive it to church on Sundays.<\/p>\n
He was also known as an organizer of \u201cThe Best of the Sixties,\u201d a tailgate tradition at Texas Christian University football games for several decades. His son Miles Loveless, a TCU alumnus like Kitty, said his father \u201cmay have been one of the most non-TCU involved alumni ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tailgate group, convening in the shadow of Amon Carter Stadium\u2019s west-side stands, included TCU alumni and football players from the 1960s. He befriended football coach Gary Patterson, who led the TCU football renaissance highlighted by its perfect 2010 season and 2011 Rose Bowl victory that he and Kitty attended.<\/p>\n
His numerous awards and accolades at the local, state and national level cited his \u201cintegrity and professionalism,\u201d \u201cexcellence in family law,\u201d \u201coutstanding contribution to the practice of family law,\u201d \u201cTexas Super Lawyers\u201d and \u201cBest Lawyers in America.\u201d At the annual dinner of the Texas Bar Foundation two months ago, he received the Dan Rugeley Price Memorial Award for the single attorney in the state \u201cwho demonstrates an unreserved commitment to clients and the practice of law.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had his detractors in the courtroom, including, according to one account, an opposing attorney who complained to a judge that continuing a proceeding was Loveless\u2019 strategy of churning fees. Loveless found an old-fashioned butter churn for sale and gifted it to his opponent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Transitioning from his own private practice, he joined his son Lon at Webb Family Law of Dallas, which he thought was among his most meaningful professional accomplishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy was a force of nature,\u201d said long-time acquaintance John Lumpkin, a former Star-Telegram reporter, Associated Press executive and director of the journalism program at TCU. \u201cHe was first and foremost committed to his family, then his wide circle of enduring friends and then his associates in the workplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was much more than his awards and his Fort Worth essentials \u2014 University Christian Church, Fort Worth Boat Club, Colonial Country Club. He could be hunting on a deer lease in Central Texas with his sons or doting on his grandchildren at camp in Colorado rather than playing golf. And that might be after going to work on Saturday morning. He might be making a pot of chili and hanging out in his backyard, sharing off the record the latest lively courthouse episode.\u201d<\/p>\n
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Aug. 20 at University Christian Church, 2720 S. University Drive, with a reception to follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Disclosures: Jim Loveless was a contributor and donor to the Fort Worth Report. John Lumpkin is on the Report\u2019s board of directors. Information submitted by the family<\/a> to Greenwood Funeral Home was used in this story.<\/p>\n