Legal Elite 2024: Young Lawyer Q&A Jamie Wood

Legal Elite 2024 Q&A is sponsored content.

Title: Associate attorney

Legal specialties: Commercial litigation, government and special investigations, regulatory compliance

Education: Bachelor’s degree in psychology, University of Texas at Austin; law degree, University of Richmond

Family: I live in Floyd with my husband, Alex Wood, who works as a dentist at a local community health center, and our beagle, Ruby.

Career mentors: I feel lucky to have many mentors across my career so far. In law school, Professors Rachel Suddarth and Carl Tobias provided valuable perspective and encouragement as I explored different career paths. I learned so much during my year clerking with Judge Thomas Cullen through his mentorship and example. Now, at Woods Rogers, I work alongside so many incredible mentors, like Ben Rottenborn, Patice Holland, Mike Hastings, Chip Casola and Justin Simmons, who have all given me great guidance, opportunity and trust, for which I am grateful.

Favorite place you’ve traveled: This is a tie between Costa Rica and Peru for me. I traveled to Costa Rica as a high schooler and then had the pleasure of taking a group of high schoolers back to Costa Rica in my former life as a teacher. I traveled to Peru in college with a good friend and we completed the Inca trail hike to Machu Picchu!

Bingeworthy TV show: I am generally terrible at keeping up with new shows and prefer to rewatch my old favorites. For example, I love rewatching “Gilmore Girls” each fall.

What do you do for fun outside of work? I love to do just about anything outside. We live in a great area for kayaking and hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have been attempting to teach myself piano too, but that is a work in progress.

What was the most valuable experience you had during law school, and how does it affect your work today? My judicial internships and externships were some of the most valuable experiences that I had during law school. They provided a great opportunity to see how different attorneys practice, confront various legal questions, and engage with the judges and my fellow interns to analyze legal issues.

Read all of the 2024 Virginia Legal Elite here.

Legal Elite 2024 Q&A is sponsored content.