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.
Towards the end of the calendar year most law firms announce the elevation of their new partnership classes. Although the demand for legal services picked up somewhat since the end of the recession, especially in transactional areas of practice, firms remain conservative in their partnership decisions. What does it really mean to become a partner? …
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American law schools offer an increasing variety of advanced legal degree programs. Historically, an LLM in tax was—and still is—valued and specifically sought by employers in the market for new and lateral attorneys in tax, estate planning, and related positions. Rarely, if ever, do employers ask for candidates with an LLM in another specialty. Employers…
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Most major law firms pay annual associate bonuses during the months of January and February. Firms eye their competition and try to match or slightly outdo each other without giving away too much of their precious partnership profits. As each new year begins, many lawyers wonder: How much will my bonus be? Or, in tough…
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One of the most dreaded interview questions is “What are your weaknesses?” No matter how qualified you are, you can’t get away with saying that you have none. If things are going well up to this point and you’ve established a strong rapport with the interviewer, you can try some humor and say, “Isn’t this…
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