James P. McAndrews III is a director at Watkins Meegan LLC in the Tax Specialty Services Group.  He specializes in providing tax consulting and compliance services for clients within many different industries.  Previously Mr. McAndrews was employed at HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, AL, as that company’s Senior Vice President of Finance responsible for the tax and records management departments.  He is a CPA and an attorney with over 25 years of experience in accounting, corporate finance, law, tax, Sarbanes-Oxley attestation, and major systems projects.  Prior to joining HealthSouth Corporation in September 2005, Mr. McAndrews consulted in the tax department at HealthSouth for nine months as a Partner with Tatum LLC.  His previous engagements with Tatum included serving as the CFO for a privately held technology company that specializes in security systems and working with a large corporate foundation to help management establish a new Board Audit Committee.

From 1985 to 2003, Mr. McAndrews worked at Freddie Mac in McLean, VA, serving as Vice President, Finance, Vice President, Corporate Tax, and Tax Counsel.  In 1985, Mr. McAndrews joined Freddie Mac to establish its corporate tax function, as the then $16 billion company first became subject to federal income tax.  After 13 years in the Corporate Tax area at Freddie Mac, he took on other responsibilities reporting to the CFO, including work on the firm’s Y2K century change effort with responsibility for corporate-wide disaster recovery plans and updating the firm’s finance systems.  In 2000, Mr. McAndrews started that firm’s intellectual asset management function, establishing procedures and policies to protect Freddie Mac’s intellectual property.

Mr. McAndrews began his career with Arthur Andersen & Co. in Washington, DC, where he provided clients with accounting, tax, and business counsel, managed audits, and prepared financial statements and tax returns, rising to the level of Tax Manager.