Pamela Lipscomb, 36, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. Her father, Jeffrey, was an assistant district attorney, and her mother, Marjorie, was a legal secretary for a private law practice. Three years later, sister Paige joined the family.
When Pam was 12, the Lipscombs moved to Oxford for her father's new job as an assistant United States attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi. Young Pam was devastated at being torn away from her friends and initially refused to make any new friends in Oxford, secretly hoping her father's job wouldn't work out and they would move back to Tupelo.
After several months in Oxford, Pam grudgingly accepted that they were there to stay and began to settle in. In school, she was an excellent student, and most of her extracurricular activities centered on academics rather than social endeavors.
She graduated from high school as valedictorian and enrolled at the University of Mississippi. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, she attended the University of Mississippi School of Law, planning to follow in her father's footsteps.
While in law school, Pam did an internship with the ACLU of Mississippi in Jackson, which profoundly affected her worldview and career plans. After graduating with her Juris Doctor, she joined Pruitt & Rayburn, an up-and-coming criminal defense practice in Oxford that also handles some public defense work for Yoknapatawpha County.
Two years ago, Robert Pruitt, one of the founding partners, was appointed as defense counsel for Benito Flores, who is accused of capital murder in the death of wealthy real estate developer Philip Fontaine. Pruitt selected Pam as his second chair.
After Pruitt was shot to death in his home by a burglar, the case and the law firm were in turmoil. After the initial shock wore off, several associates, including Pam, began aggressively pursuing a partnership to fill the void. But the surviving partner, Gary Rayburn, was deeply shaken by the loss and was slow to name a new partner, even as the associates clamored for the position.
However, Rayburn was ill-equipped to run the firm without Pruitt, and in a few months, the business was struggling. Even without an official partnership, Pam stepped up to help Rayburn guide the practice from behind the scenes, and things began to rebound.
Last fall, Pam officially became lead defense counsel in the Flores case. With compelling forensic evidence implicating Flores, Pam and her investigators have focused their efforts on identifying other plausible suspects with as much, if not more, motive and opportunity as Flores.
At the same time, Rayburn made Pam a partner, but she's still working to get her name on the door and is hoping the Flores defense will be the case that finally makes it happen.
The Benito Flores trial began on February 7.
