Lynden grad was inspired by Mock Trial

Mark Reimers
Tribune reporter

Jodi (Shea) Hammond

LYNDEN -- Jodi (Shea) Hammond got the job she wanted the day she graduated from law school.
  Granted, it was only a conditional hiring until she took and passed the Arizona bar exam. Still, the 1997 graduate of Lynden High School is now working as a deputy county attorney in Maricopa County, Ariz., the home of Phoenix.
  “It can be crazy,” she said of the job that involves prosecuting vehicular crimes in a large county.
  The time Hammond spends in court is the craziest because the rest of her work-load doesn’t wait while she presents a case to a judge.
  Add to this to the fact that Hammond is also a wife and now a mother of two boys, Micah, born in 2005, and David, born last September.
  Hammond started college at Washington State University and transferred in 1999 to Central Washington University in Ellensburg, which is where her husband Micah is from.
  After graduating with an double major in English and Law and Justice in 2002, Hammond started law school at Arizona State University.
  Ironically, it is the very thing that makes her job crazy that got Hammond into her field: Arguing a case.
  “I really enjoyed Mock Trial while I was in high school,” she said. Hammond continued pursuing a law degree for the duration of her college course work.
  Micah, who is employed with their church and takes a large part in caring for their two boys, shares Jodi’s struggle to adjust to city life, since both of them grew up in rural areas.
  “We never intended to stay as long as we have,” Hammond said. “We still consider ourselves Washington people.”
  However, for the time being, Hammond wants to take advantage of her current job which is lucrative due to the large size of the county that employs her.
  Another factor keeping the family in Arizona is the Washington State Bar, which doesn’t have reciprocity with Arizona, meaning Hammond would have to take the Washington bar exam to practice in her home state, which is a financial investment possibly paired with a pay cut.
  There are bright spots to the wait.
  “We found a good church,” she said.
  While she waits for an ideal time to return to Washington, Hammond reminisces about life in a small town -- something she used to take for granted.
  “When you grow up in a small town, it doesn’t leave you,” said Hammond, whose parents are Fredrick and Virginia Shea.
  “I didn’t realize until I was an adult that it’s not normal to meet people you know in the grocery store,” she said. “I remember the tellers at the bank would know my dad. Now when I see someone I know at the store, it makes my day.”
  Hammond wants to take the community values she learned in Lynden with her, but she also realizes she has her kids to think about too.
  “The people grow up making an honest living feeding the community,” Hammond said. “It’s a pleasant way of life and I want my kids to have that.”
  E-mail Mark Reimers at reporter@lyndentribune.com.