James L. Bayless, Jr.
Managing Partner

Mr. Bayless joined Page-Wheatcroft & Co., Ltd., in 1998 as a Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C., office, where he conducts senior-level legal searches for the firm’s clients on a national basis. Previously, Mr. Bayless was in private law practice in Washington for fifteen years, first with a leading Texas-based firm and later as founder and managing partner of his own firm. In both capacities, he has represented and advised numerous prominent U.S. and foreign clients in the energy, telecommunications, transportation, and export-related industries. Mr. Bayless specialized in developing governmental affairs strategies on a broad range of legislative, regulatory, and transactional matters, as well as on matters in litigation with a public policy dimension.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Bayless served in three major policy-making positions in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. From 1978 to 1981, Mr. Bayless served as legislative counsel to Senator John Tower of Texas, for whom he developed legislative strategies for tax, energy, and international trade legislation pending before the United States Senate. From 1981 to 1982, he served in the Reagan White House as Associate Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel. In this capacity, he identified and recommended candidates for Presidential appointment to senior policy-making positions at the Departments of the Treasury and Transportation, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal banking regulatory agencies, and the multilateral development banks. In 1982, Mr. Bayless was appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he sought congressional approval of the Reagan administration's legislative agenda, particularly with regard to international trade policy issues.

Mr. Bayless is a graduate and a Distinguished Alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin (B.B.A., Accounting, 1974) and a graduate of Southern Methodist University School of Law (J.D. 1977), where he concentrated in the field of federal taxation. He is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society and Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society.