Katherine González-Valentín is a Senior Member at Ferraiuoli, LLC and Chair of the Labor & Employment Department. Before joining Ferraiuoli, she was a Special Counsel in the Labor and Employment Practice Group of Pietrantoni Mendez & Alvarez, LLP (2011-2004). She is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Puerto Rico (2004-2006) and worked in the Labor & Employment Law Department of McConnell Valdés (1999-2004)and in Shapiro & Lugo (1998).
Ms. González-Valentín has focused her practice and currently manages litigation in state and federal forums and provides preventive advice and orientation to employers covering the different areas of labor and employment law including employment contracts, workplace policies and management training, discrimination, defamation, wages and hours, constitutional rights, employment privacy, wrongful discharge, Internet Law and appellate practice, among other labor related matters. She also handles administrative claims and has obtained substantial experience in federal court litigation. She is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (1998), the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (1999), the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1998) and the Supreme Court of the United States (2002).
Ms. González-Valentín earned a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Communications and a minor in Business Administration from Duquesne University in 1993. She obtained a Juris Doctor from Interamerican University School of Law in 1997 and was an intern at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, DC (1995), and the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia (1996), where she acquired practical experience in the areas of civil rights, equal employment opportunity and the formulation of federal rules and regulations.
Ms. González-Valentín has been an active FBA member since 1999 and was a member of the Board of the Puerto Rico Chapter between 2004-2011, where she served as Director (2004-2006), Vice President (2006-2008), President Elect (2008-09), President (2009-10) and Immediate Past President (2010-11). She currently is Editor in Chief of the Chapter’s award-wining newsletter. She is also a Fellow of the Foundation of Federal Bar Association and First Circuit Vice President for the FBA.
Katherine frequently lectures on labor and employment, litigation and civil procedure topics and has been a speaker for clients and different associations such as the Puerto Rico Manufacturers’ Association, the Society for Human Resources Management, the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce and local Universities, to name a few.