Valerie graduated from Wofford College in 2013, where she earned a B.A., magna cum laude, in Spanish and History, with a concentration in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She was Phi Beta Kappa. As an undergraduate, she studied and lived in Salvador, Brazil and Cordoba, Argentina. She attended Middlebury College’s Summer Language School for Portuguese, in which she has a working proficiency. She is fluent in Spanish.
She earned her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 2017, where she was Head Hearing Advisor for the University’s Honor System, co-President of the Women Law Students Organization, and a Lead Articles Editor for the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice. As a law student, Valerie clerked for the Honorable Richard M. Gergel in the District Court of South Carolina. She was a student caseworker in the Black Lung Clinic.
After law school, Valerie clerked for the Honorable Donald B. Hocker, South Carolina Circuit Court Judge in Laurens County. She was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in November 2017 and joined Ogletree Deakins in June 2018.
