Photography by Stephanie Rhea
JIM WAIDE, Founder and Shareholder
Jim Waide, a native of Clay County, Mississippi, is the founder and a current shareholder of Waide & Associates, P.A. A graduate of West Point High School and Millsaps College, Waide spent three years in the United States Marine Corps, including one year as a forward observer in Vietnam. Waide was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in combat. After discharge from the Marines as a Captain, he graduated from Tulane Law School. While at Tulane Law School, Waide earned the American Jurisprudence Award in Corporations. After graduation, Waide worked for one year as a law clerk to United States Court of Appeals Judge J.P. Coleman. Shortly thereafter, Waide formed his own law firm, practicing first in Weir and West Point, before moving the firm to Tupelo in the mid-1980s.
Waide’s law practice emphasizes employment discrimination and civil rights cases. He is licensed to practice law in all state and federal courts in Mississippi, as well as the western district of Tennessee. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Federal Claims, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He is also a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Six of Waide’s cases have been accepted by the United States Supreme Court, and he has never lost a case before that Court. Waide considers the most significant of those cases to be Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., which limited the authority of federal judges to overturn jury verdicts and Wyatt v. Cole, which abolished immunity provided to parties in cases brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983. Waide’s other Supreme Court cases are as follows:
Polk v. Dixie Ins. Co., 501 U.S. 1201 (1991)
Garner v. Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc., 548 U.S. 923 (2006)
Gibson v. Kilpatrick, 134 S.Ct. 2874 (2014)
Johnson v. City of Shelby, MS, 135 S. Ct. 346 (2014)
Waide’s efforts to change laws unfair to employees resulted in a well-known decision, McArn v. Allied-Bruce Terminix, Inc., 626 So. 2d 603 (Miss. 1993), which established a public policy exception to the employment-at-will doctrine.
According to the Mississippi Jury Verdict Reporter, Waide has tried more jury trials than any other Mississippi lawyer for each of the past five years.
Waide is a member of Mission Mississippi, a volunteer for the Salvation Army, a Tupelo-Lee Humane Society foster parent, and attends First United Methodist Church in Tupelo.
Waide is also a member of the Lee County Bar Association, the Mississippi Bar Association, the Fifth Circuit Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. Waide was the recipient of the NAACP Legal Award in 2006, was the recipient of the Unifest Humanitarian Award in 2007, received the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Unsung Heroes Award in 2008, received the Committee for King Community Service Award in 2012, was named to the Top 10 in the Mississippi Business Journal’s Leadership in Law in 2010, and received The Mississippi Bar Association’s Lawyer Citizen Award in 2014. Waide is listed in “Best Lawyers in America.”
Waide is married to Rachel Pierce Waide, who is also a shareholder in the firm.