By Margaret Kean
When he was a high school junior in 1963, Sterling Myers (JD 1972) took a job clerking for James “Jim” Helms (JD 1952), an Arcadia attorney in private practice. This led to a decades-long career and friendship.
Myers fell in love with the law at Helms’ Arcadia, California, office, working part-time while attending USC for both his undergraduate and law degrees, later joining the firm as a partner. The two worked together until 2019 when Jim, at age 94, retired after 67 years of practice. Each came from markedly different backgrounds but found a common ambition in the practice of law.
A Civic-Minded Mentor
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| James “Jim” Helms (JD 1952) |
Born in Tennessee in 1925, Helms grew up on the Navajo Indian reservation at Fort Defiance in Arizona where his father was a missionary superintendent of the Good Shepherd Mission, an orphanage for Navajo children. Helms attended a two-room school for white children. At the mission, his playmates were all Navajo children. When he visited the monument to the Code Talkers at Window Rock, Arizona, he recognized some of their names. He expressed disappointment in the displacement of the native tribes: “This was their land and it is one of the great tragedies of our country that we forced them off their land and confined them to reservations on some of the poorest land.”
After high school, Helms enrolled at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, leaving a year later to serve in World War II in the U.S. Army. He entered as a private and in two years was a company commander. After three years and the end of the war, he returned to college and met Georgiana, who attended Vanderbilt University and later became a school teacher. They married and moved to California where he enrolled at USC Law School. Helms remembers Dean Orrin Evans exhorting the students to “look at the man on your left and the man on your right. Only one of you will be left.” And that proved to be true, Helms said.
He sat for the bar in 1952 while still in law school, and upon graduation was an associate at a law firm that soon closed. On the advice of a Monrovia judge, he opened his own practice in Arcadia.
“I borrowed $300 and with three other people – a CPA, an insurance agent and a broker – I opened an office,” Helms says. “At the time, you weren’t allowed to advertise and your sign had to be a certain size. So I joined the Exchange Club in Arcadia and got my first clients.” His practice grew by word-of-mouth and he took almost any case that came his way, as was the custom for most attorneys in private practice.
“My practice in the early days included construction litigation, criminal defense, IPOs, medical malpractice and a lot of PI cases,” Helms says. He later became certified in estate planning, trust and probate law. “I have seen some tremendous changes in the way we practice law,” Helms said.
Helms became a leader in Arcadia government, serving eight years on the city council, including time as mayor. Helms also belonged to the Rotary Club, Masonic Lodge, Elks Lodge, and the Methodist Hospital Foundation Board – and still found time for his hobby as an amateur radio operator, as well as backpacking, golf, tennis and running.
He and Georgiana had three daughters and now have six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. When Georgiana died in 2002, Helms said that listening to music on Classical KUSC helped him get through that difficult time.
A Leader in Family Law
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| Sterling Myers (JD 1972) |
Myers, born in 1947, grew up in Temple City and met his wife Joann while they were in high school. He lived at home while attending USC, working part-time in Helms’ office.
As an undergraduate at USC, he met with Dean Dorothy Nelson to express his desire to enroll, sharing his work experience and LSAT scores in hopes that he was an impressive candidate. He recalls her telling him, “You never know, so you should apply two to three other places, too.” However, when she said goodbye, he was encouraged when she said, “I’ll see you.” He never applied anywhere else.
Myers signed up for the Air Force ROTC that same year and recalled the challenge of wearing a uniform on campus where anti-war feelings ran high. Nevertheless, he continued his service and was commissioned before his first year of law school. The summer before his third year, he completed officer training school and married Joann.
Expecting four years of military service, Myers was surprised to learn before graduation that the Air Force was giving him two options: active duty, or eight years of reserve duty. He chose reserve duty and proudly served 10 years as a JAG at an Air Force facility near the aerospace industry in the South Bay. “I remember standing under the space shuttle before anyone knew it existed,” he said.
After discharge from the Air Force, Myers did a bit of every kind of law before settling into family law. He became one of the first certified family law specialists in 1980 and has been a leader in that area of practice, serving for 28 years on the board of directors of the Association of California Family Law Specialists.
The Road to Retirement
Helms and Myers speak highly of each other as they reflect on their lifelong partnership. They agree that the hardest part of retiring is leaving the people they have worked with for years.
Helms, sharp as ever, has begun his retirement by setting up his home office.
At 72, Myers was ready to retire from litigation – but he is not fully retiring. After completing mediation and collaborative training, he has been part of a collaborative practice group for 10 years. He and Joann, a marriage and family therapist, will now be collaborating to provide mediation services to families.
“We help families going through divorce receive supportive services that help the entire family navigate through this terrible spot in their lives,” Myers shared. “It helps everyone focus on their humanity and find a way through to the other side.”
Helms and Myers are two Trojans that represent the “Fight On” spirit.
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