TLIE mourns the passing of its founding father, Jim Lovell
TLIE NewsJames (Jim) Reed Lovell, TLIE’s founding father, passed away on July 4, 2023. Jim was 96 years old, and had recently moved from Dumas, TX to Amarillo, TX. He lived a long life, filled with family, service, education, productivity, leadership, willpower, good times, bad times, resilience and unrelenting optimism. His mind was sharp and his spirit was good until his last breath.
TLIE and its members will forever be grateful to Jim for founding TLIE in 1979.
During Jim’s long span of legal practice, he served in numerous local, state, and national attorney associations. He served as a director of the Texas State Bar for many years, receiving multiple awards for his service and contributions, including the President’s Award in 1979 and another award in 1994 for his contribution to the founding and continued operation of TLIE.
Through his service in the State Bar, Jim became a member and eventually chairman of the State Bar of Texas Insurance Trust (1973-80). His service on that trust in the late 1970’s led Jim to spearhead an effort to find a solution to the serious lack of predictably available and reasonably priced legal malpractice insurance for Texas lawyers. Jim and his group of unpaid volunteers eventually put together what became TLIE.
Before it could become legally authorized to issue insurance policies, TLIE had to raise the substantial initial capital from its soon-to-be policyholders. Still short of the minimum capital required to begin, someone would have to put up $165,000 with no collateral and no assurance it could ever be paid back. That someone was Jim Lovell, who signed a personal bank loan and took a risk for TLIE and the lawyers of Texas. It worked. Jim’s law firm was issued Policy #1. “The grass was always green, right where he was,” remarked a fellow director of TLIE. TLIE has successfully insured its member-lawyers, through good times and bad, for 44 years and counting. Jim was its unpaid Founder, initial President, and Chairman of the Board from 1979 until 2009.
We will miss Jim, his experience, his optimism and his example of a life well lived. In the words of one, “Anyone who has ever known Jim is better for it.”
Read more about Jim’s life and legacy: https://www.boxwellbrothers.com/…/james-reed-lovell-jim/
