Valerie A. Fontaine earned her JD from UC Hastings College of Law 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.
During the course of your career, you may contemplate switching practice areas-either by choice or necessity. Some attorneys discover that the area of practice they chose, or fell into, after law school, is not right for them. Others find that the economy or political or technological developments necessitate a practice change. The ease or difficulty…
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Performance reviews needn’t be an ordeal; rather, with the proper preparation and attitude, they can be an opportunity for mapping out your path to career success. Virtually all attorneys from junior associate to senior partner have some sort of evaluation, even if it is only part of the annual compensation-setting process. With the tight economy…
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Attorneys often start law school with the goal of changing the world. Later, a heavy load of student loans and the need to practice with an eye on the bottom line disabuse many lawyers of those idealistic notions. You can, however, have both a successful legal career and work for the cause. Whether you volunteer…
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There’s some truth to the saying that it’s not what you know, but who you know. There’s even more truth to the saying that it’s not who you know, but who knows you. It’s a given that you must have the basics in place: education, experience, and hard work. But, to boost your career advancement,…
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