A 6-year-old Kimberly D. Caines once said she wanted to be a senior magistrate, and it seems she has not wavered much in her career goals since then.
Today, Caines is an associate at MJM, where she is honing and developing her craft as an advocate and attorney and looking toward goals that would make her 6-year-old self proud, like sitting on the bench, lecturing on law within an academic setting and motivational speaking.
Caines’s career demonstrates the value of doing something about which you are passionate. Speaking of what she loves about being a lawyer, she says she enjoys “the ability to help people, the client interaction” as well as “the advocacy, appearing in court and discussing current legal issues with my colleagues and friends from law school who are now practicing.” She is also keen to keep challenging herself. “One obstacle I face is not becoming complacent in any area of my life and not to stay in my comfort zone. I always strive to learn and challenge myself and to become the best version of myself I can be.”
Caines’s road to success involved working as a summer student in a number of different law firms while she was earning her qualifications, and gaining experience in a number of different practice areas. She says this experience of learning, observing and completing work for the lawyers she assisted helped focus her interest in civil litigation. She advises that others looking to get into her profession do the same and “use the experiences of others as a guideline but not a roadmap, glean from their experiences, but make your journey uniquely yours.”
The directors of MJM, especially her pupil mentor Juliana Snelling, have inspired Caines. She is grateful to them for investing time, energy and knowledge to train her to be the litigator she has become.
Timeline:
2001 Graduated from Bermuda High School for Girls
2002 Graduated from Saltus Grammar School, Saltus Graduate Year
2002-06 Attended the University of Western Ontario to study for a B.A. (Hons) in women’s studies and Spanish language and literature
2006-07 Attended Bermuda College/ University of Kent to study for a certificate in law
2007-09 Attended the City Law School (London) to study for an LL.B. (Hons)
2009-10 Attended City Law School to study for the Bar vocational course
2010 Called to the Bar of England and Wales at the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn
2010-12 Employed as a pupil barrister at Mello Jones & Martin (now MJM Limited)
2011 Called to the Bermuda Bar
2012+ Associate in the litigation department at MJM Limited
Check out more of the 2013 Rising Stars, HERE!
