How James K. Record Built a Career in Criminal Law

James K. Record has spent much of his career studying one complicated subject from several different perspectives: how criminal law works when it leaves the textbook and enters the real world.

Professor Record is an attorney and criminal justice educator whose career has included prosecution, criminal defense, advanced study in criminal law, and law school as well as university teaching. In January 2027, he will begin his next chapter as an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois.

The move into higher education might seem like a significant change for an attorney. For Professor Record, however, teaching is closely connected to the work that came before it.

“I have had the opportunity to see criminal justice from several different perspectives,” Professor Record says. “When you have tried felony cases in front of juries, and then step into a classroom, you start thinking about what students need to understand beyond the complex concepts in a textbook.”

That relationship between legal theory and practical experience has become a recurring theme throughout his career.

From New Jersey to a career in law

Professor Record grew up in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, as the youngest of five children.

At Elmwood Park Memorial High School, he excelled as a student athlete. He Varsity Lettered in four sports and became a Bergen County champion in the 3,200 meters as well as First Team All-League in Cross Country. He graduated in 1980 before attending Stonehill College from 1980 to 1984.

A few years later, Professor Record entered Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He studied there from 1986 to 1989 and earned his Juris Doctor. While attending law school, he interned at the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office. 

Becoming an attorney gave Professor Record the opportunity to move from studying legal theory to actively participating in how those principles interact with real people, evidence, and life-altering consequences.

Criminal law and criminal procedure soon became central to his professional life.

How Attorney James K. Record built experience in criminal law

Professor Record served as an Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor, an experience that put him directly inside the criminal justice process.

The work required more than knowing the law. Prosecuting criminal cases involves disputed facts, evidence that must be evaluated, procedural requirements that must be followed, and decisions that can carry serious consequences for real lives.

“You learn that the details matter,” Professor Record says. “A legal rule may look straightforward when you first study it. Applying that rule to a real set of facts can be much more complicated, and preparation is the key to success.”

Professor Record later gained experience in criminal defense, including through the Law Offices of James Kane Record, P.C. He became certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Criminal Trial Attorney and handled serious felony cases throughout the state.

Working in criminal law from different perspectives broadened the questions he was asking about the justice system. Instead of considering only what the law required, Professor Record became increasingly interested in why certain procedures existed and how they affected cases as well as people in practice.

Those questions eventually led him back to law school.

Why James K. Record pursued advanced criminal law studies

By the mid-1990s, Professor Record was already an attorney with extensive practical legal experience as both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. He could have simply continued along the same path.

Instead, he returned to school to broaden his understanding of criminal law and criminal procedure.

From 1995 to 1996, Record attended SUNY at Buffalo Law School, where he earned an LLM in Criminal Law with Honors.

The timing was important. Professor Record was no longer approaching criminal law only as a student preparing to become a lawyer. He studied it after seeing the justice system firsthand.

“Practice gives you questions you may not think to ask when you are first in law school,” he says. “Returning to advanced study gave me a chance to look at criminal law with experience behind those questions.”

Rather than separating academic study from legal practice, Professor Record began to see how the two could strengthen one another.

That idea would eventually shape the next stage of his career.

Taking legal experience into criminal justice education

Professor Record later became an Assistant Professor at California University of Pennsylvania.

Moving into higher education changed the immediate purpose of his work. Instead of preparing for the next legal matter, he was helping students prepare for careers of their own.

His years as both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney offered a unique perspective.

Students can learn the elements of an offense or memorize a rule of criminal procedure. The harder task is learning what happens when the facts are incomplete, two principles appear to conflict, or evidence raises questions without an immediate answer.

“A textbook gives you a foundation, but you must build critical thinking along with excellent communication and problem-solving skills,” Professor Record says. “ Criminal justice rarely presents issues in a neat package.”

That approach has allowed Professor Record to connect criminal law, criminal procedure, and broader criminal justice education rather than treating them as isolated subjects.

In January 2027, he is scheduled to continue his passion for teaching, mentoring, and advising students as an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Quincy University.

Where criminal law and forensic science meet

Another part of Professor Record’s professional interests sits at the intersection of law and forensic science.

Professor Record is affiliated with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences through its Jurisprudence section. He has had papers accepted and has been a speaker at several Conferences. He also has an active license with the Washington, DC Bar and the United States Supreme Court Bar Association.

Forensic evidence presents a particular challenge in criminal law because it is always evolving and scientific evidence must still operate within legal standards.

A laboratory result may appear definitive at first glance. A lawyer, however, may need to consider how the evidence was collected, what a particular test can actually establish, whether the methodology has limitations, and how the evidence should be presented and evaluated in court. It must be testified to by an accepted expert, and the findings entered into evidence so a jury may consider it.

“The important question is not simply whether something is described as scientific evidence,” Record says. “You have to understand what the evidence can support and where its limits are.”

For someone whose career has moved between legal practice and education, that intersection is an ever-evolving area of interest.

James K. Record’s next chapter at Quincy University

Professor Record’s career has not followed a straight line from law school into one type of legal work. Instead, each stage has built on the one before it.

His experience as an attorney brought criminal law out of the classroom. His work in prosecution and criminal defense exposed him to different parts of the criminal justice process. His LLM allowed him to return to criminal law with advanced knowledge and experience. Teaching gives him a way to turn those experiences into lessons for others.

Outside his legal and academic work, Record has also remained involved in service. He volunteers as a member of the American Legion and participates in Sons of the American Legion and American Legion Riders.

Now, Quincy represents the next stage.

“I have spent a large part of my career learning how criminal law works from different points of view,” Professor Record says. “Teaching gives me the opportunity to bring those perspectives together and help students understand both the law and the ethical responsibility that comes with working in criminal justice.”

For James K. Record, becoming a professor is not a departure from a career as an attorney. He believes it to be the perfect way of putting that career to work.