James Leonard Bacchus (born June 21, 1949) is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida from 1991 to 1995.

[citation needed] Bacchus was Deputy Press Secretary and Chief Speechwriter for Florida Governor Reubin Askew from 1974 to 1976.

This led to later roles addressing the nexus of economic and environmental issues as general counsel to Florida’s state growth planning commission and as chairman of community development efforts in his hometown of Orlando.

[citation needed] Bacchus was a founding member and twice chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1995 to 2003.

Bacchus was nominated on a bipartisan basis by the United States and twice appointed to the Appellate Body by consensus of the now 164 countries that are members of the WTO.

[citation needed] On February 23, 2007, Bacchus was named to a Department of Defense panel reviewing the Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal.

[citation needed] Bacchus was a member of the High Level Advisory Panel to the President of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2014 to 2016.

[citation needed] He has served as Chairman of the Commission on Trade and Investment Policy of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce since 2012.