About James Aaron Nelson
James Aaron Nelson Jr. built a career that starts in accounting and moves steadily into tax and estate work. He earned a B.S. in Business Administration, concentrating in accounting, from The Citadel in 2008. He then completed a J.D. at Charleston School of Law in 2011 and followed that with an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Florida in 2012.
After law school, Nelson began practicing in South Carolina. He joined Merline & Meacham, P.A. as an associate in 2012. Four years later he shifted roles within the firm and took on an Of Counsel position in 2016. Those years at the same firm mark a steady progression from courtroom preparation and client intake to advising on more complex tax and estate matters.
Nelson’s background in accounting informs his legal work. The combination of a business-focused undergraduate degree and an LL.M. in taxation gives him technical grounding for matters that intersect finance and law. He handles issues that commonly arise in estate planning, probate and trust administration, and he brings tax considerations into those client conversations rather than treating them as afterthoughts.
He is active in professional circles related to that mix of issues. He has been a member of the American Bar Association since 2011. He joined the South Carolina Bar Probate, Estate Planning, and Trust Section in 2015 and has participated with the South Carolina Bar Tax Section council since 2016. Those memberships keep him engaged with changes in state and federal tax rules and with developments in probate and trust practice.
Colleagues describe Nelson as methodical in approach. He tends to break complex financial problems into discrete pieces and address each in turn. That method suits estate and trust work, where paperwork and timing can be as important as legal argument. He also spends time reviewing the tax consequences of proposed plans and settlements.
Nelson is admitted to practice in South Carolina and remains based in the state. He continues at Merline & Meacham, P.A. in an Of Counsel capacity, working on tax, probate, estate planning and trust matters in his current practice focus.
