Board & Staff Funding Categories Grants Press Legal Help Links Contact James B. Buda Catepillar Inc. James B. Buda is the Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, Illinois.  He is a 1973 graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School.  Jim began his career with Caterpillar in 1987 as a product liability litigator after 14 years of private practice trial experience and serving as the General Counsel of a privately held company.  He became Associate General Counsel, managing the Caterpillar litigation department, in 1996 until he moved to England in 1999 where he managed the United Kingdom Legal Office for Caterpillar.  He was elected by the Board of Directors to take his current position in January 2002.  Jim is a member of the American Bar Association, the state bars of Illinois and Indiana, American Corporate Counsel Association, American Society of Corporate Secretaries, Association of General Counsel, Corporate Executive Board – General Counsel Roundtable, Federation of Corporate and Insurance Counsel, International Association of Defense Counsel, Product Liability Advisory Council, Civil Justice Reform Group where he is the National Champion for the issue of “Problem Jurisdictions” and the Defense Research Institute.  Jim is a board member of the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, and was recently named “Innovative General Counsel” of the year by Corporate Counsel magazine.  In February, Jim was named among “The Most Influential In-House Counsel in North America” by Inside Counsel magazine.