Jim Cox has been an Associate General Counsel / Patent Attorney at Rice since July 2018. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan College of Engineering (B.S.M.E. 1987) and a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School (J.D. 1990). He is a member of the State Bar of Texas (2013), State Bar of Michigan (1990), and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (1991). He is a member of NACUA, AUTM, and the Intellectual Property Law Sections of the Michigan State Bar and Texas State Bar.

Prior to joining the Office of General Counsel at Rice, he was an Assistant General Counsel / Patent Attorney at the University of Texas System’s Office of General Counsel, at various intellectual property law firms, and in-house at General Motors' IP section, specializing in intellectual property law. He has also been an adjunct faculty member at the Ave Maria School of law and has served as an Armor Officer in the United States Army, deploying to Bosnia-Herzegovia as a Platoon Leader in the 1st Armored Division during Operation Joint Endeavor. He is a licensed pilot, a PADI certified Rescue diver and an amateur thespian (from lead to extra) in several community theater productions. His principal areas of practice at Rice are intellectual property, patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, technology licensing, information technology, and sponsored research.