James retired on December 26, 2014. For the past 17.5 years he worked for the Ninth Circuit Library headquartered in San Francisco, California, with his duty-station located in Spokane, WA, as the Branch Librarian assigned to work with judges and court staff within the Eastern District of Washington.

He retired with more than 40 years of training, experience, teaching, and practice as a member of the Washington State Bar Association and as a law librarian. Prior to his work for the Ninth Circuit, he worked at the University of Texas at Austin as a Reserve and Reference Librarian, at Washington University in St. Louis as the Associate Law Librarian, at Gonzaga University School of Law as the Director of the Law Library, and as the director of the East Bonner County Free Library District in Sandpoint, ID. His retirement plans include travel, volunteer work, and expanding upon his knowledge of automation and computers.