Jim Gottstein grew up in Anchorage, Alaska.  After graduating from West Anchorage High School in 1971, he attended the University of Oregon and graduated with honors (BS, Finance) in 1974.  Subsequently enrolling in Harvard Law School, Jim completed his formal legal studies in 1978, graduating with a J.D. degree.

In addition to over 25 years of private practice, emphasizing business matters and public land law, Jim has been an attorney advocate for people diagnosed with serious mental illness: 

• Co-founded the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) in 2002.  Jim is currently president.  See, http://psychrights.org.
   
• Co-founded Soteria-Alaska, Inc.,, in 2003, to provide a non-coercive and mainly non-drug alternative to psychiatric hospitalization, serving as president until November, 2007.  See, http://soteria-alaska.com/.
   
• Co-founded CHOICES, Inc. (Consumers Having Ownership in Creating Effective Services) in 2003 to provide peer-run, alternative services, especially the right to choose not to take psychiatric drugs, serving as president until November, 2007..  See, http://choices-ak.org/. 
   
• Co-founded Peer Properties, Inc., in 2002, to provide peer (mental health consumer) run housing for people diagnosed or diagnosable with serious mental illness who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or living in bad situations.  See, http://peerproperties.org/.   Jim is currently vice president.
   
• Member of the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA)
  board of directors since 2005, serving as president in 2006 and 2007.  See, http://narpa.org/
   
• Member of the board of directors of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP) since 2006.  See, http://icspp.org/
   
• Member of the Alaska Mental Health Board (AMHB), the statewide planning board for Alaska's mental health program from 1998 to 2004, where, at various times, he served as chair of its Program Evaluation Committee and of its Budget Committee, which makes formal recommendations regarding the state's mental health  program budget.
   
• Served as plaintiffs' counsel on behalf of people diagnosed with mental disorders in Alaska in the billion dollar litigation over the state of Alaska's misappropriation of a one million acre trust granted for Alaska's mental health program.  See,  Weiss v. State, 939 P 2d 380 (Alaska 1997). 
   
• Co-founded Mental Health Consumers of Alaska in 1986 and served on its board of directors for almost ten years.
   
• Co-founded the Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web in 1998.  The Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web provides peer-support and a drop in center for mental health consumers in Anchorage. 
   
• Provide pro bono legal services to mental health consumers in various matters throughout his over 25 years in the active practice of law.

Currently, Mr. Gottstein is spending the bulk of his time on the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights on a volunteer (pro bono) basis.  The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights' mission is to organize a serious, coordinated legal effort against forced psychiatric drugging and electroshock across the United States.  In June of 2006, the Alaska Supreme Court decided Myers v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute, which ruled Alaska's forced drugging procedures unconstitutional.  See, http://psychrights.org/States/Alaska/CaseOne.htm    Mr. Gottstein has also devoted considerable time trying to make  alternatives to psychiatric drugs available in Alaska, though Soteria-Alaska,  and CHOICES, Inc.  See, Report on Multi-Faceted Grass-Roots Efforts To Bring About Meaningful Change To Alaska's Mental Health Program for a description of these efforts.