Valerie A. Fontaine earned her JD from UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) and her BA, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, from UCLA. She was on the Editorial Board of COMM/ENT, a Journal of Communications and Entertainment Law. Valerie practiced law with a prominent Los Angeles law firm and entered the legal search profession in 1981. Valerie is past Secretary to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC) and former Chair of its Newsletter Committee. She currently serves as a consultant to NALSC headquarters.
Clients are not always pleased when their outside lawyer moves to another law firm because it requires a change in the attorney-client relationship. Either the client must follow the attorney to the new law firm, leave the work with the previous firm and find a new relationship partner, or find a new lawyer and law…
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In most cases, the success of a lateral partner hire is greatly determined by the successful transition of his or her clients. A few years ago, the managing partner of a large law firm announced to a roomful of search firm consultants at a NALSC (National Association of Legal Search Consultants) conference that “We have…
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The skills that make a great rainmaker are not necessarily the same skills that make a great law firm associate. In the first few years, associates are valued for traits similar to those that brought success in law school—the ability to learn quickly and produce massive quantities of quality work. Suddenly, a few years later…
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On February 6th, 2018, SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy into space with an unusual payload: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster with Starman, a spacesuit-clad mannequin in the driver’s seat “listening” to David Bowie’s Space Oddity on loop. As Starman blasted off, so did space law. The term “space law” refers to the body of international…
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