Influential Woman · Legal field

Valerie Sanchez

Case Manager, Brandon J. Broderick, Personal Injury Attorney at Law

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Vocational high school with major in criminal justice

Her Story

About Valerie

I've been in the legal field for about 6 years now, and the journey has been definitely hard and exciting. You learn something new every single day, and you continue to learn - especially with the legal field, things continue to change, and you always have to keep up with what's going on. I always knew I wanted to get into law. I actually went to a vocational high school, and my major was essentially criminal justice, with the goal to go to law school, which is still in the works. I'm trying to go into law school now, and the ultimate goal is to become an attorney. The past 6 years have really been to determine if that's something that I truly love and I'm passionate about, and I feel like throughout the years I have decided that's something that I 100% want for myself. Currently, I work for a personal injury firm where I manage over 100 cases. My day-to-day is working on these cases, making sure that the clients are getting what they need to get done, and making sure that the case is proceeding the way it should be. What I love most about my career is overall the challenge of it. It is a lot of work, it is stressful at times, but I think it's more so the feeling of accomplishing something and seeing yourself grow as an individual when it comes to handling files every day, cases every day. You deal with people every day, so it is very interesting, a very challenging field.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Valerie

01What do you attribute your success to?

I think my parents. I am first-gen graduate, so I think all my hard work and discipline comes from trying to change that and show my parents that even though they did immigrate to this country, they were immigrants, we can get somewhere through education. I think that's something that they really installed in me throughout my childhood, so that's kind of the reason why I pushed so hard to go to college, graduate, start my career, and continue to succeed in my career.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

As a woman, it is a little harder in the legal field, because you're surrounded by a lot of men, if we're being honest. So I think the best advice I've received from a female attorney, actually, was to kind of ignore all the outside voices, anyone that's trying to put you down, and then kind of just keep going. Because at the end of the day, you can show how capable you are, and especially being a woman, you're proving everybody wrong. So I think that's definitely the best advice I've seen.

03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

I think right now, it is a bit challenging to grow because I'm currently a paralegal. So it is challenging to grow within a firm without stepping up to being an attorney, so that's one of the reasons why I decided that I did want to proceed with my law degree, and I want to become an attorney, because right now, my next step would be to become an attorney.

04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

I think work does come first, but you have to be very ethical and honest with yourself, and I think as long as you stay within those values, you'll be successful. I think that's probably the most important thing.

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