Jim Gash's "Divine Collision" Officially Released

February 9, 2016 -- Pepperdine Law professor Jim Gash's book, Divine Collision: An African Boy, An American Lawyer, and their Remarkable Battle for Freedom (January 26, 2016, Worthy Publishing), is officially released today. The story of Professor Gash's work in Uganda through Pepperdine's Global Justice Program[BROKEN LINK] is also recounted in the Revolution Pictures documentary, REMAND.

Excerpts from Divine Collision press release:

Jim Gash was living a comfortable life as a Los Angeles lawyer and law professor at Pepperdine University. Henry was a teenage boy wrongly accused of murder, languishing in a Ugandan detention center for almost two years without trial. Henry was losing hope, and prayed for a sign from God. Halfway around the world, Jim Gash listened to attorney and philanthropist Bob Goff encourage lawyers to use their legal training to help imprisoned children in Africa. Jim felt an irresistible urge to respond to this call and told Bob to count him in. Little did Henry know, his prayer had been answered.

Jim Gash graduated first in his law school class at Pepperdine in 1993. Over the course of his career, he has clerked with a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, worked at one of the top law firms in the country, and served as Pepperdine Law's Dean of Students. In 2010, Jim traveled to Uganda on a juvenile justice project where he met Henry. Since then, he has returned to
Uganda sixteen times. In 2012, Jim Gash became the Specialist Advisor to the High Court of Uganda and in 2013 became the first American ever to appear as an attorney in Ugandan Court. Today, Jim directs Pepperdine's Global Justice Program and is scheduled to become an official citizen of Uganda in 2016. Jim and his family live in Malibu, California. Jim blogs at www.throwingstarfish.com.

Professor Jim Gash

(from his Pepperdine Law biography)

After majoring in finance at Abilene Christian University, Professor Gash continued his education at Pepperdine University School of Law. As a law student, he finished first in his class and served as the editor-in-chief of the Pepperdine Law Review.

Upon graduation, he went to work for the small litigation firm of DeSimone & Tropio. The following year, he had the privilege of serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Edith H. Jones, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He then joined the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis where he focused on appellate and commercial litigation. He relocated to Kirkland's Los Angeles office in 1997, where he worked until joining the faculty in 1999. From 2005 through 2012, Professor Gash served as Associate Dean for Student Life, and since January of 2012, he has served as Specialist Advisor to the Ugandan High Court.

During his first year of law school, Professor Gash decided that his career goal would be to return to teach at Pepperdine where his passion for the law was ignited and his spiritual life was enriched by the faculty, administration, and community. He teaches Torts, Evidence, and Legal Ethics.

Professor Gash is a member of the California and Washington, D.C. Bar Associations, is admitted to practice before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.