Valencia R. Rainey

Valencia R. Rainey is Senior Advisor to the General Counsel, at the National Endowment for the Arts, (NEA) where she advises the General Counsel on Agency matters. Ms. Rainey also litigates all agency employment matters. Ms. Rainey is an experienced employment law litigator, with extensive trial and courtroom experience. Ms. Rainey litigated numerous jury trials during her nine years with the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia. Prior to joining the NEA, Ms. Rainey worked in the private section at several law firms specializing in employment and labor law. Ms. Rainey was the senior trial attorney at Gebhardt & Associates, L.L.P., and a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice. Ms. Rainey has litigated matters in the private sector and federal sector and focused her practice on discrimination, sexual harassment, severance and separation agreements, negotiations, contracts, and workplace issues. Ms. Rainey practices in the United States District Courts, at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and at the United States Merit System Protection Board. (MSPB). Ms. Rainey utilizes her wide range of experience in civil and criminal law to strategically resolve claims in individual cases and multi-party class actions. Ms. Rainey is an arbitrator with FINRA. She is an Alternative Dispute practitioner was awarded the prestigious 2010 H. Leon Higginbotham Fellowship by the American Arbitration Association.