ABA Search and Staffing - About Us: Team Bios

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Team Bios

Legal Specialists. Recruitment Experts. Unique Individuals.

At ABA Search & Staffing we have assembled a unique team of highly skilled and dedicated recruiters. While we all have diverse personalities, as a group we are energized by the legal industry, passionate about staffing, and committed to the success of our clients and candidates.

It's our pleasure to introduce the ABA team. We look forward to working with you.

Management

Valli F. Farmaian (valli@ABALegalSearch.com)
Valli is the founder and President of ABA Staffing, Inc. He was born in Philadelphia, PA, and attended high school at Tabor Academy in Massachusetts before receiving his BA in communications from University of New Hampshire. He earned his MBA from Suffolk University in Boston and then moved to the Bay Area in 1982. That year, Valli joined the staffing industry as a sales professional with Adia Personnel Services. In 1984, he was promoted to Branch Manager and was charged with opening and managing a new Adia office in San Francisco. Valli rapidly built this local office into the 8th most profitable branch of more than 500 Adia offices across the nation.

In 1986, driven by his desire to provide more personalized and effective staffing services, Valli founded ABA. His philosophy for the new company was to make a more significant investment in really getting to know ABA's clients and employment candidates to make better job placements. Long before advanced staffing and resume software packages had been widely adopted, ABA abandoned the traditional paper-based placement process and built a database of detailed, multi-dimensional candidate and employer profiles. "One of the keys to our success, which still holds true today, is to process more information, more quickly, and more accurately," he said.

Valli lives in Hillsborough, CA with his wife, Mandy (who is also his business partner), two sons, and a black lab.

Favorite things to do in the Bay Area: Hiking in Purisima Park and snow skiing (although he prefers Utah!).

Favorite quote: "Move with the times and swing with the changes."

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Mandy Yazdi Farmaian (mandy@ABALegalSearch.com)
As one of the key individuals responsible for ABA's business development efforts, Mandy has been instrumental in the company's growth since its inception. For the past 19 years, she has held the role of Vice President of Sales and Marketing and has led ABA's efforts to establish productive customer relationships with premier law firms and corporations in the Bay Area.

In 1991, Mandy started the Search division of ABA, leading the placement of professional legal personnel, as well as attorneys. In early 2006, Mandy became ABA's Chief Executive Officer. In this role, Mandy's goal is to lead ABA once again to paramount growth and to help the company become the best legal search and staffing firm in the Bay Area.

Prior to ABA, Mandy worked with Union Bank of California and Law offices of Jack Kaiser. She received her B.A. in Political Science and French from University of California at Berkeley. She has two teenage sons, is married to Valli, and lives on the Peninsula. Her hobbies include oil painting, reading, cooking, and movies. She also enjoys sports, such as skiing, spinning, and hiking.

Favorite quote: "Take time to smell the roses." (Author Unknown)

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The Team

Mary Arbuckle (mary@ABALegalSearch.com)
Mary joined ABA in February 2004 as a director in the Search division, specializing in attorney placement. Mary has successfully placed attorneys in many Bay Area law firms, and has filled General Counsel and In-House Counsel positions for several corporate clients. She has also placed attorneys in the litigation support technology/e-discovery arena on a national basis. Prior to joining ABA, Mary was Vice President, Director of Human Resources, for Goldman Insurance Services in San Francisco. At Goldman, she spent 14 years overseeing Human Resources and was a member of the Management Team until it was sold to Willis Insurance Services. Earlier in her career, Mary was Human Resources Manager at Gumps and often used ABA to staff various positions there. To Mary, joining ABA felt like coming home. She believes that networking makes the world go round, especially in the world of recruiting. She attributes her success in meeting the needs of ABA's clients to having fun while working at ABA. As someone once told her, if you have "fun" in what you do every day, then you never really have to go to "work." Mary holds a B.S. degree from Michigan State University.

Favorite quote: "Wherever you go, there you are."

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Gene Durand, Esq. (gene@ABALegalSearch.com)
A New Mexico native, Gene spent many of his formative years in Northern California, relocating to the Bay Area in the late 80’s. He is a member of the California Bar and Bar Association of San Francisco. After practicing at a litigation boutique in San Francisco, Gene transitioned into recruiting in 2000, which allowed him to combine his legal training and previous consultative sales experience. He has extensive knowledge of and experience in the legal landscape and enjoys finding out exactly what his candidates and clients want in order to make the perfect match. He has succesfully placed attorneys and staff in corporations and law firms in the Bay Area. "I decided to join ABA because of its long history of success coupled with the benefit of having the principals and owners of the company in the office working side by side with the staff," says Gene.

Favorite things to do in the Bay Area: Enjoying the exceptional restaurant scene with friends, taking in the scenery along the Bay Trail, and occasionally pulling out the sketch pad for an afternoon of drawing.

Favorite quote: "You miss 100% of the shots you do not take." (Wayne Gretzky)

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Angela Higginbotham (angela@ABALegalSearch.com)
Angela moved to the Bay Area in August 2006 to begin law school at Golden Gate University, and is currently attending classes there to earn her JD. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, she received her undergraduate degree in political science from Miami University of Ohio in May 2003. Angela comes to ABA with experience in the staffing industry, and she is excited to apply that experience while gaining first-hand knowledge of employment issues and opportunities in the legal field.

Favorite things to do in the Bay Area: Going to baseball games, surfing, attending concerts, visiting the wine country.

Favorite Quote: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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Claire Miller (claire@ABALegalSearch.com)
Claire is originally from the Chicago area. She grew up in northern Indiana and got her BA from Lake Forest College in Illinois. After that she worked as a trade-book buyer for the Follett Corporation at their Northwestern University location. In 1986, she was ready for a change, so she moved to San Francisco to be near some good friends. The job market on the west coast convinced her that she'd need to set aside her love for books and concentrate on her accounting skills, so she joined the Peabody Group, a now-defunct software company, doing payables and receivables. A couple of years later she made the move to ABA as a payroll and general accounting assistant. In 1991, she was promoted to Controller and has served on the Executive Committee ever since. In her years with ABA Claire has seen it all: a name change, two office moves, thousands of candidates, and a million paychecks (and that's her signature on every one of them). Often referred to as the "memory of ABA," she's the go-to person for questions about the agency's history and evolution. Claire still lives in San Francisco and would not consider moving away, although she loves to travel. She particularly enjoys attending media conventions around the US, cruising to foreign countries, and reading mysteries set in distant and historical locales.

Favorite quote: "Worry is interest paid in advance for a debt you may never owe."

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Tanecia Echols (tanecia@ABALegalSearch.com)
A California native, Tanecia grew up in Monterey. After high school, she played NCAA division 1 softball for Tennessee State University in Nashville and also completed a Bachelor of Science. Upon graduation, Tanecia lived in Switzerland for three months and then returned to California where she earned her JD from Golden Gate University School of Law. In the legal field, Tanecia has a wide range of software and research skills and has worked in a breadth of practice areas, including real estate, environmental, and immigration law. When asked why she joined ABA, Tanecia praised ABA's commitment to creating a workplace that respects and includes individuals with a wide range of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. "ABA recognizes the unique contributions that individuals with differences can make, which is why it is a welcoming and rewarding place to work."

Favorite things to do in the Bay Area: Outdoor activities such as trail running, mountain biking, and camping.

Favorite Quote: "Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us." (Wilma Rudolph)

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Lyn Denend (lyn@ABALegalSearch.com)
Lyn is a California native, born in the south and raised in the north. After attending college at UC Santa Barbara, she moved to San Francisco to enjoy all the city had to offer. Lyn worked at ABA as a recruiter and manager of the company's temporary division from 1989 to 1994 before moving to North Carolina to obtain her MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Upon receiving her degree, Lyn came back to the Bay Area and worked as a management consultant for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young for seven years. She returned to ABA in 2005 on a part-time basis to assist the company with operations improvements, employee training and development, and special projects. When asked why she agreed to rejoin ABA, Lyn said, "It's all about the people, the variety of work, and the fact that there's never a dull moment!" Currently, Lyn lives in Menlo Park with her husband, two children, and two black labs.

Favorite things to do in the Bay Area: Eating out (SF has such great restaurants), going to live performances (music, plays, etc.), wine tasting, and exploring new areas.

Favorite quote: "Live and let live."

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Management
Valli F. Farmaian
Mandy Yazdi Farmaian

The Team
Mary Arbuckle
Gene Durand, Esq.
Angela Higginbotham
Claire Miller
Tanecia Echols
Lyn Denend