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.
Building your own practice is essential to career success. Therefore, one of the most important considerations when contemplating a career move, especially at the partner level, is to assess which firm has the best platform for you to develop your client base. Just as hiring firms conduct due diligence when acquiring a lateral attorney, it’s…
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Avoiding your supervising partners’ pet peeves is easy as long as you conform to their idea of the perfect lawyer. What top partners from prestigious law firms say they are looking for in the ideal associate also applies to lawyers at all levels of seniority, and is a roadmap to success. This is what they…
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You need a vacation. You’ve earned it. But can you manage to get away? A March 2023 Pew Research Center survey shows that only 48% of U.S. workers use all their allotted vacation days each year. It’s a good bet that the percentage is even smaller for lawyers. According to a July 12, 2022 Forbes article, the benefits of…
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Describing your firm and differentiating it are two very different things. The key to successful recruitment and retention lies in understanding how your firm is different from its competitors, clearly communicating that difference in the marketplace, and then finding the audience that appreciates those differences. Every organization has a wealth of information embedded in its…
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