Page 34 - Miami Vol 7 No 2

2018 WOMEN IN LAW
ROBERT KLEMM PHOTOGRAPHY
Taking Over the Boy’s Club
AALM: What do you nd rewarding about being an attorney? What do you nd challenging about your practice. How do you overcome those challenges?
Valdés: e most rewarding thing about my practice is the fact that you never stop learning. ere is always a change in case law, a new way courts choose to handle matters, or some clever new angle being presented to the courts to try and change the law. I love that challenge, even a er more than 20 years of practicing law. However, the biggest challenge to my practice is having the time to handle all the rm management issues that come up. I have brought in my husband (who is also a lawyer) to help with rm management and this has helped tremen- dously, so I can do what I love – practice maritime law.
AALM: Did you have any mentors or professors who helped you develop your career? What is the best lesson they taught you?
Valdés: My parents, because they were tough on me, taught me to be ercely independent and that my reputa- tion was my most prized asset. Patricia Olney, probably the only woman that sat for the board certi cation exam for admiralty and maritime law back in 1996, taught me the importance of becoming involved in the admi- ralty Bar and even though some of the guys would not be friendly toward me in the beginning, she said they would eventually come around – she was absolutely right!
AALM: Tell us the funniest story you have from your practice.
Valdés: I started working for a well-known mari- time law rm as a young associate working for a tough litigator, who was also former coast guard commander and who did not get along with many of his opponents. Unbeknownst to me, he had a nickname for me – Legs Otero. I only learned about the nickname years later when he became my law partner at a di erent rm – he called me that while we were travelling overseas on
ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · MIAMI · VOL. 7 NO. 2 34
MICHELLE
OTERO
VALDÉS