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 Secretary to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC) and Chairs its Newsletter Committee.
Law schools don’t teach you everything you need to know in order to succeed in today’s legal marketplace. As the legal profession increasingly becomes more business-oriented, successful lawyers need to know more than just the law. Business and management skills are becoming essential to advancement, whether you practice in a law firm or an in-house…
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Salary negotiations start when you first walk through the door to interview with a prospective employer. Although you should not discuss compensation in an initial interview, and should try to delay those discussions as long as possible during the interviewing process, from the very first meeting you should be working on proving your value to…
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The first step toward achieving career success and satisfaction is an honest self-assessment. If you’re not clear about where you’ve been, where you are, and where you want to go, it’s difficult to determine if you’re on the right path or what your next step should be. It’s a good idea to give yourself a…
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Do you have the right stuff to make partner? At the top firms, studies show that associates who join right out of law school have a 10% chance of making partner at their firm; lateral associates have a 17% chance. Nearly ¾ of all associates leave the first firm they join after law school graduation,…
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