We were lucky to catch up with Jamie Paine recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jamie, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I grew up extremely poor and so I learned what I needed to in order to survive. To some that may sound dramatic but to others like me who wondered if they would have a place to sleep after school or a safe adult to come home to, that was life. I had to learn to earn money as young as 11, became a caretaker for my younger sister and my mom, and stay motivated to build skills to change my life’s journey. My work ethic developed because I had no choice. I could either accept my situation and become the examples around me or be different. I chose different. That choice is what crafted my work ethic.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I work at Griffiths Law PC. A high end law firm that specializes in mostly family law and some civil litigation.
We focus on mitigating harm to our clients and advocating for them during the most stressful times of their lives.
Griffiths is a team of lawyers dedicated to doing the right thing for families and their children.
After several years of my career dedicated as a prosecutor I moved to family law and found my passion in my career. I am excited to announce that I am being promoted to Shareholder at Griffiths Law, effective January 1, 2024.
Griffiths law just bought a new space and is expanding its staff. The future is bright for the firm and I am excited to be a part of it.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The top 3 skills and qualities that I have that were most impactful to me and my journey was developing active listening, harnessing my empathy without enabling, and self care.
As a lawyer we often are looking for the next point we want to make but when you actively listen to people such as clients, opposing counsel, or judges there is often a lot that goes unheard because we are too busy thinking over them. When I started to really focus on enhancing this skill, my litigation practice substantially improved. I encourage any person to develop this skill as it is so powerful in all areas of life.
I am naturally an empathetic person but there has to be boundaries to that especially in my line of work. It has been life changing to continue practicing empathy but in a way that permits me to continue doing this job everyday and also not enabling behaviors that are not helpful to a person even if it is the result of trauma or stress. The advice I give to a lot of people on this journey is to learn how to set boundaries and stick to them.
Last, I cannot stress the importance of self care enough. We all say it and encourage it but doing it is entirely different. We need to rest, breathe, fuel our bodies, sleep, reflect and not simply let our titles and social/family expectations dictate how we should live. We need to take time to ourselves to be better in our journey. Even if you take one minute a day that makes a huge difference.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
I have learned to improve my self care practices so I can be a better mom, wife, lawyer, sister, friend, and person.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.griffithslawpc.com/attorneys/jamie-paine/
- Instagram: @painetrain2013
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-britt-paine-1207a65a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
Image Credits
A Precious Child Larry Laszlo
