Justia Legal Services & Lawyers Directory

Valerie A. Johnson graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1987, and from the University's law school, with honors, in 1994. Before entering law school, Valerie was a public school teacher. Valerie joined the firm after law school, litigating cases in the areas of workers' compensation, employment discrimination, personal injury, social security, and civil rights. She has been board certified in workers' compensation law since the North Carolina State Bar introduced certification in the specialty area in 2000. She has taught trial advocacy at the University of North Carolina School of Law each semester since 2003.

Valerie is a board member of the Lawyers Coordinating Committee of the AFL-CIO. She has served on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers (now North Carolina Advocates for Justice) and is a member of its Workers' Compensation Executive Committee. Valerie now chairs the North Carolina State Bar's Workers' Compensation Legal Specialization Committee. In addition to workers' compensation, her current areas of practice also include labor and employment and social security disability.

Leto graduated from Hunter College of the City University of New York, summa cum laude, in 1980, and from Harvard Law School in 1983. She served as law clerk to the Honorable James E. McMillan, of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina from 1983-84. Before joining the firm, Leto was a staff attorney with Legal Services of Southern Piedmont and had her own law practice. Leto has served on the North Carolina Bar Association Labor and Employment Section Council, the Board of Directors of Farmworkers Legal Services, and as treasurer of Legal Aid of North Carolina, an agency delivering free legal services to low-income people statewide. She has served as President of the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys and as President of the Charlotte chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina. Before attending law school, Leto worked in the department of political action and legislation of District Council 37, a local of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Leto is listed in the Best Lawyers in America in the area of workers' compensation. Since 2006, Leto has been included in the list of North Carolina Super Lawyers published by Law and Politics Magazine. In the same magazine, she has been listed as one of the top fifty women lawyers in North Carolina. Leto is rated AV by Martindale Hubbell.

Leto currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Workers' Compensation Section of North Carolina Advocates for Justice and as a member of the Law Practice Management Section Council of the North Carolina Bar Association. She is a member of the American Association for Justice, the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, the Workers Injury Law & Advocacy Group, the American Bar Association, North Carolina Advocates for Justice, the North Carolina Bar Association, the Orange County Bar Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys. She is actively involved in her church, St. Philips Episcopal of Durham, where she currently assists with the Hispanic Outreach Ministry and serves as an elected member of the vestry. Leto is a Board Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law. Her areas of practice include workers' compensation, personal injury, wrongful death and sex abuse/sexual harassment.