James J. Guinan Jr.

James Joseph Guinan was born on September 21, 1923, in Evanston, Illinois. He graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, in 1941, and the following year joined the Army, serving in the South Pacific until 1945. He completed his undergraduate degree at Yale University in 1949 and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1952.

Judge Guinan began his legal career at the copyright office of the Library of Congress, where he worked from 1952 to 1955, and then practiced law in Washington, D.C., from 1955 to 1958. In 1958 he moved to Reno, Nevada, where he spent his first five years as Chief Deputy Director of the Legislative Revision Commission at the Nevada State Legislature before entering private practice. In 1971, Governor Donal 'Mike' O'Callaghan appointed him to the bench of the Second Judicial District Court in Reno. Over an 18-year tenure, he earned a reputation in both the legal community and the community at large as an impartial jurist with a keen legal mind.

Judge Guinan retired from the bench in 1989. He went on to serve on the Nevada State Ethics Commission from 1997 to 1998 and remained of counsel at the law firm of Macdonald, Carano & Wilson until his passing. He died on May 21, 2010, at his home in Reno.