BOARD Members:

OFFICERS

• Dora L. Monserrate  President

• Ricardo F. Casellas President Elect

• Katherine González
  Vice-President

• Carlos A. Valdejully
  Treasurer

• José R. González-Nogueras  Secretary

• Veronica Ferraiuoli  Immediate Past President

• Manuel Pietrantoni       National Delegate

DIRECTORS

• Richard Graffam-Rodríguez

• Andrés W. López

• Oreste Ricardo Ramos-Pruetzel

• Roberto A. Cámara-Fuertes

• Alberto Estrella

• Francisco E. Colón - Ramírez

Katherine González-Valentín

PIETRANTONI MÉNDEZ & ÁLVAREZ, LLP

Katherine González-Valentín is a Special Counsel in the Labor and Employment Practice Group of Pietrantoni Mendez & Alvarez, LLP.  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). Previously, she was an Associate Attorney in the Labor & Employment Law Department of McConnell Valdés (1999-2004). She also worked for Shapiro & Lugo (1998) handling counseling and litigation of employment and corporate matters. Before becoming an attorney, Ms. González-Valentín was an entrepreneur actively participating in management aspects of a family-owned corporation engaged in the sales of industrial equipment for the construction, pharmaceutical and the manufacturing industries in Puerto Rico. 

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.  While in Law School, in addition to being involved in the family business, Ms. González-Valentín worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, DC, and the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia,  as a Summer legal intern where she acquired practical experience in the areas of civil rights, equal employment opportunity and the formulation of federal rules and regulations.  She also worked as a teacher assistant to law professor Evelyn Benvenutti-Toro in a Research & Writing course. 

Ms. González-Valentín=s areas of concentration include litigation and consultation on employment contracts, discrimination, defamation, wage and hour, constitutional rights, employment privacy, wrongful discharge claims, Internet Law, notarial and appellate practice, among other labor related matters.  She 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 has been a speaker in several forums and seminars.  She has lectured on issues concerning privacy, access to employees= information, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the use of computers, electronic communications and Internet in the workplace.   She has been an active member of the Federal Bar Association, Puerto Rico Chapter, since 1998 and became part of its board in 2004, currently holding the Vice President position. 

Ms. González-Valentín has a published opinion, namely, Arturo Alfonso Bru v. Trane Export, 2001 TSPR 129, (disclosure of income tax returns in employment litigation) and collaborated in the work resulting in the opinion in Benjamín Ortiz Algarín v. Federal Express Corp., 56 F. Supp. 2d 172 (D. Puerto Rico 1999) (inapplicability of the compelled self publication doctrine).