Some may say her law practice is unconventional, but Jaime thrives outside of the box.
As a free-spirited entrepreneur and nature lover, Jaime makes the most of life by focusing her time on the community and the great outdoors.
Jaime grew up in the small town of Orangeville, Ontario. After completing high school, Jaime wasn’t completely certain what she wanted to do. She had good grades, and decided to attend University of Waterloo, starting out in Psychology where she took a forensic psychology course. At the same time, her favourite professor was launching an interdisciplinary legal studies degree and with the first graduating class and her eyes set on law school. After completing her undergrad, she took a year off to volunteer for a few months in Tanzania, where she had the opportunity to travel to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and sit in on a few of the hearings that were still being conducted. At the same time, she found out she had been admitted to Western Law.
When she arrived at Western, Jaime felt like a fish out of water. While academics had come easy to her up to that point, she felt very disconnected from the curriculum and struggled with keeping her grades up. She eventually found her groove and became quite involved with the on-campus dispute resolution clinic. In hindsight, Jaime acknowledges that she struggled with imposter syndrome and comparison to her peers (many who came from a long family line of lawyers). Overall, she didn’t have the best law school experience, but was lucky to leave with a few lifelong friends.
Jaime did not have confidence to compete in OCI’s. After graduating, she worked for a few great mid-sized law firms in Kitchener and Toronto, and as in-house counsel. During the early days of her legal career, Jaime couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew this wasn’t the career path for her and couldn’t help but think “what’s next?” Since undergrad, she had felt like she was on the legal hamster wheel and needed to step off to regroup and consider her career path. While continuing at her job, she hired a career coach to start planting the seeds and exploring next steps.
Jaime’s partner, an outdoor guide and enthusiast, insisted that she shouldn’t work in a job she did not love. After being let-go from her in-house position in Toronto, Jaime knew she needed to take time away from law. She took nine months off, road-tripped across the country before landing on the West Coast, where she took various pet-sitting gigs as a way to explore Alberta and British Columbia and take time to think about the life she wanted to create.
It was around this time the gig-economy was really taking off, and Jaime became curious about the journey of entrepreneurship. She became obsessed with business podcasts, marketing, and any stories about how people left their traditional path to start one of their own. She did a lot of reflection, read any self-help book she could get her hands on and mapped out different options for her future career. She also took a life coaching course as she thought she might pursue coaching.
After working with a few clients, she realized it wasn’t for her, but was happy she gave it a shot wondering, ‘what if’?
Her career coach, was invaluable in providing accountability and direction. Podcasts also became her “mentors” and was a great way to have examples of people doing things differently and permission to try something new. To become a lawyer, there are so many steps you must do well, and up to that point, Jaime she felt like she had invested so much into her career decisions that it almost felt as if she was a failure if she made a switch. In reality, many professionals change careers or practice areas and it was helpful to hear of other lawyers making changes or simply shifting directions.
Through her “Wild” sabbatical, Jaime discovered that it was not so much the practice of law that she disliked, but who she was serving and working with. She was offered a position at a small business law firm in North Vancouver. Here, she began working with entrepreneurs and small businesses, and she started really enjoying the work. The shift out of Toronto was also a big one, as it became clear that the work/life mentality was quite different between the two Canadian cities. Instead of going for overpriced cocktails after work and leaving work at 5pm to go running or biking on the local trails was the norm, rather than the exception.
When working at a small corporate firm in North Vancouver, Jaime noticed that a lot of her clients opted not to pay for lawyers often and decided to risk doing their legal work on their own. Although she admired their entrepreneurial spirit, Jaime knew taking these risks was not wise.
When she moved to Vancouver Island, she started her own remote law firm, Wild Coast Law, to support small business owners. Having seen many entrepreneurs go without legal help due to the financial burdens, Jaime created the Contracts Market. Contracts Market is an online shop offering a range of affordable, customizable, plain English, lawyer-approved contract templates designed specifically for Canadian business owners.
While she’s received so much support, Jaime has received push back from lawyers claiming Contracts Market is “taking away their business”. However, she does not believe this to be the case. Often the entrepreneurs that are purchasing her templates, would have chosen to go without support at all when they were just starting out. Further, she’s actually found that after entrepreneurs purchase her contracts or learn more about the legal side of their business, they are more likely to reach out to lawyers, since their first experience has been a good one, and it’s raised other flags in their business that needs legal support from a lawyer, that they would have otherwise overlooked.
Starting Contracts Market and Wild Coast Law has been perfect way for Jaime to immerse herself in the entrepreneurial community. As both businesses are completely operated online, it affords her the ability to enjoy the outdoors around her hometown of Courtenay, a small town nestled between the ocean and mountains, full of lakes, rivers, and trails. She became successful in both her practice and business when she figured out her own pace and rhythm of work.
Having a life outside of work is very important for Jaime.
Her successful practice supports her enough to not have to work a typical 9-5 job. Jaime chooses to only work Mondays through Thursdays until 2 o’clock. A lot of her work week is spent with other entrepreneurs either networking, attending webinars or educating the community.
The idea that lawyers need to sacrifice their wellbeing to be successful has been ingrained in the legal community, but it is not reality. Jaime could be working longer hours and making more money, but “life is too short”. She has found a perfect balance where her work allows her to meet her needs while allowing her to do the things she loves, like getting out into the mountains on sunny days in the winter, since those days are so few and far between.
In addition to having more time to enjoy life, Jamie’s work schedule has given room to express her creativity. Lawyers tend to forget to use the creative side of their brain. Journaling was a huge game changer for Jaime. It gave her mind space to process things better and discover her passions.
Throughout her experiences, Jaime has noticed that many lawyers commit quickly and later feel like they have invested too much to change areas or positions. She recommends trying out different types of jobs, in different sized firms. Lawyers are led to believe that they must follow an uphill trajectory to “success”.
Success is subjective, and everyone has a different goal in mind. Trying different things can help you define what “success” means to you.
Jaime has found her own version of success through working less, helping fellow entrepreneurs, engaging her creativity, and spending time outdoors.