Valerie A. Dondero is a shareholder in Kubicki Draper’s Miami office and has been with the firm for seven of her twenty-eight years of practice. A native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, Valerie attended Immaculata University just outside of Philadelphia. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree, Valerie obtained her Juris Doctor at St. Thomas University School of Law.
Prior to joining the Firm, Valerie was an equity partner at a South Florida firm and served as the Chair of Property and Casualty Claims, where she honed her skills as a litigator and coverage attorney.
From a young age, Valerie knew she wanted to practice law in large part because she desired to be in a position where she would be able to protect and help others. After twenty-eight years, Valerie still holds true to those same principles of fairness and justice for her clients.
In addition to her desire to help others and achieve the fairest result, Valerie’s passion for the law comes through in her embracing the intellectual challenges she deals with every day. In her coverage-based work, Valerie “lives” with a file from start to finish, analyzing issues from the pre-suit phase to the trial, appellate, and enforcement phases. Valerie’s wide-ranging experience has taken her to the Florida Supreme Court where she will be pressing forward with a challenge to the constitutionality of a Lee County hospital lien ordinance.
Valerie is lucky in that she has found not only a life partner in her husband, George, but also a law partner who she can use as a sounding board. When they are not practicing, Valerie and George enjoy being with their family, including his two sons, their daughter, Juliet, and their grandchildren. Valerie and her family also enjoy being on the water and are involved in the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, a callback to Valerie’s days as a competitive swimmer.
Whether it’s tackling a complicated legal issue for a client, providing mentorship to the lawyers she works with, or focusing on her family, Valerie prides herself on being the kind of person that people feel they can come to for support, and it is what makes her such a strong asset to the firm.