About: Pam

TL;DR

Attorney. Writer. Freelancer. Decades of experience bearing witness to wisdom, willpower, wit, and wins.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Cliff Notes Version (“just the facts, m’am” )

✧︎︎︎ Work Experience

● Attorney [PA, NJ, CT] — 3 decades:

  • persuasive writing / argument
  • productive interactions with folks from all walks of life
  • procuring satisfying results
  • detail-focused review & analysis of documents and situations
  • → focus: assistant prosecutor (NJ); personal injury corporate defense, small business, general practice; throughout: written arguments (“attorney” = s/he who routinely writes 30+ page documents called “briefs” 😬)

● Teacher/Counselor [MN, PA] — 1 decade:

  • Prisons: Twin Cities area of Minnesota; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • counseling/instructing soon-to-be paroled inmates re job development nuances; developing jobs
    • working with families to instill a supportive environment as a requisite to loved one’s successful societal re-integration
  • Community College: Gloucester County, New Jersey
    • counseling/instructing students re career development
    • drafting related course materials
  • → focus: Women Helping Offenders, MN; Pennsylvania Prison Society, Phila.

✧︎︎︎ Additional Experience

  • multiple work-study jobs throughout undergraduate and graduate-level schooling to finance education, e.g. Assistant to Associate Dean Gibson (Law School)
  • creation of Peer Study Program to assist fellow minority undergraduate students (at then-named East Stroudsburg State College; later transferred to Macalester College)
  • serial part-time jobs from age 16 to finance anticipated college tuition

✧︎︎︎ Education/Licenses/Awards

● Law Licenses

  • Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey
  • “Good Standing”: continuously, all jurisdictions

● University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas

  • Doctorate of Jurisprudence: 2-year accelerated program of study
  • Academic Scholarships, including:
    • Earl Warren Scholar
    • Captain T.M. Reagan Scholar
    • School of Law Competitive Scholar
    • Snodgrass Competitive Scholar
  • Awards include Highest Achievement Award: Civil & Political Rights; Honors: Federal Criminal Trial Practice, Trial Advocacy Principles, Mass Media Communications, Immigration Law

● Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota

  • Bachelor of Arts: Political Science, Sociology
  • Multiple Independent Study courses: Corrections, Peneology
  • Awards/Honors: include Dean’s List, magna com laude graduation

✧︎︎︎ Legal Website Awards/Commendations: dpg-law.com (1997-2001)

(hand-coded/ hobby/ self-taught website requisites; converted Pennsylvania WP court opinions to PDF & constructed search mechanism with globally free access during pre-Google era)

  • Off the Beaten (Or Oft-Surfed) Path, Jan. 1998: “For a unique approach to Internet research, try Plaintiff v. Defendant Legal Issues, http://www.dpg-law.com. Rather than organize sites by subject, its attorney/publisher, D. Pamela Gaines, posits a specific legal query and then maps a research trail for finding its answer. Each month highlights a different liability topic, with a new query each week. November, for example focused on evidentiary matters.”
  • Best of the Web for Lawyers 5 Stars: legal.online, Dec. 1997. “Overall usefulness to legal professionals; content; design and presentation; accessibility and ease of use; innovation.“
  • Elite Best of the Web Award: Feb. 1998. “quality content and skillful design“
  • Best 82 Small Law Firm Websites: March 1998. “based on content, presentation and experience“
  • Best of the Planet People’s Choice Award: March 1998. “Speed and ease of use, design, quality of content, timeliness“
  • The NonConformist Award: March 1998. “originality, organization, design“

The Making of a Woman

Perspective + determination = success

  • Widowed when I was five, my mother instilled two umbrella principles: character illuminates in darkness; coercing smiles is the rent we pay for continued breathing. When she was again widowed during my undergrad years, one month prior to her first wedding anniversary, she remained steadfast in her faith and determination to teach by example. Lesson learned: limits thrive only in the mind and spirit.
  • Lady Life, sometimes a brutal mistress, is tamed by perspective. While I reject pie in the sky maxims geared toward explaining the inexplicable, I fully embrace the wisdom of exploiting the current moment to the fullest. Hence, I am in the process of retiring my successful legal career to pursue my first love: writing.
  • Marriage mandates respect and an abiding friendship. ‘Tis true: 2d time’s the charm. 1st marriage = driveBy; 2nd = liveBy (30+ years).
  • Self-employed since the 80’s, I comprehend the interplay between Murphy’s Law and deadlines, conducting myself accordingly: all work is prepared and typically delivered well in advance of the due date.
  • Bending minds, to view a set of circumstances in the manner desired, requires respect for the psychology of the reader/listener as well as the message. Self-respect mandates an ethical approach, always and in all ways.
  • A nod to humor fuels productivity, as does the absence of “i” in teamwork.
  • Joyful obsessions:
    • bird photography
    • Motown-era and smooth jazz music
    • all-things writing related (read: stationery nerd)
    • technology

✧︎︎︎ Top 5 Accomplishments1

  1. Privilege/honor of serving as 24/7 caregiver for my mother for 5 years (while working via home office)
  2. Friends made during toddler/grade school years remain cherished confidants today
  3. Strength inherent in the on-going ability to self-admit a personal weakness and strive toward conquering it or developing a worthy work-around
  4. Passing each bar examination on first sitting
  5. Most satisfying appellate case: Pa. Supreme Court reversal on behalf of educational client (Watson v. Temple University, 810 A. 2d 636 (Pa. 2002): validating our refusal to divulge certain work-product /attorney-client privilege documents during discovery)

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Additional Site “About” Basics

    Call to Action

    ?🤔 Looking for someone to 👀? …

    • enliven your blog with rich content polishing your message, incorporating a touch of humor to keep retinas rotating across and throughout your page(s) → secure the services of a subscriber to striking speech
    • proofread/edit your gem-in-the-making document → conciseness + acute awareness of grammar niceties = absorbed reading undisturbed by petty oops! distractions
    • ghostwrite your ebook or other extensive text → You shine publicly as I shine quietly
    • massage your message with a subtle yet effective call to action → my winning record confirms the power of my persuasive linguistic style
    • analyze/summarize your documents, with a watchful eye on details sufficient to make/break a case → this decades-long freelancer knee-jerk recognizes the distinctions between the mundane and the monumental
    • construct and/or teach a course online → plain English (yes, including legal writing!) combined with life-event examples convert the “new” into a readily understandable construct, cementing lessons
    • convey techniques for successful LSAT or bar examination sittings → my top 10% LSAT profile, combined with first-time success with the bar exams of 3 jurisdictions, underscore my abilities in this niche (spoiler alert: no Internet at the time … I ate every prep book found on local bookshelves within a 50 mile distance, as well as actual exams pulled from the archives of Yale’s law library—psychology of test-taking rules supreme)
    • lessen your writing load → relief is within your grasp, via the contact info provided below

    → I am a writer ← ready, willing and available** to exceed expectations in satisfying your related needs.

    → **I will proofread academic papers for students & provide constructive criticism; I will not write such papers.

    Contact me through the handy form (preferable), or shoot a txt to me directly at 984.201.2001. Tell me your precise need with timeframe, and I’ll get back to you with a quote, promptly. In any event, do enjoy this magnificent day! 😄

    Footnotes

    1. With the exception of certain statements regarding my mother, and broad declarations, family particulars do not grace this website. ↩