Andrea C. Farney

Andrea was born in Phoenix, Arizona in the 1960s. Her mother and father moved to Rochester, NY shortly thereafter, and Andrea grew up in Rochester with her parents and older brother. She graduated from Pittsford-Mendon High School and the Eastman Preparatory School with a degree in Percussion in 1983. She attended her mother’s alma matter, Oberlin College, and while at Oberlin, Andrea majored in History with a focus on Latin American Studies. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year and graduated with high honors. Andrea went on to obtain her juris doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School, graduating cum laude in 1990. While at Michigan, she was a contributing editor of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.

Music performance has always played an important role in Andrea’s life. In High School, in addition to percussion, she studied classical piano. In College, she joined the Oberlin Can Consortium, a popular steel drum band on and off campus. After a law school break, she played in several bands and orchestras, including the Winona, MN Symphony, the Rochester Orchestra, and her own rock band, Betty Brain. After moving to Pennsylvania from Minnesota in 1998, she eventually joined the Keystone Concert Band, where she met her husband, Ed, in the percussion section!

Andrea is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession, economic justice issues, and affording equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities. She is an individual with chronic depression, and she hopes by making it transparent that this will help fight the stigma placed on mental health disorders.

Andrea and her law partner, Sharon R. López, built a boutique, progressive, law firm based in Lancaster, PA, for the express purpose of advancing social change through civil rights representation.

Andrea started her legal career in 1990 as a legal services attorney in Winona, Minnesota, a small town in southeastern Minnesota. Andrea represented low-income individuals in family law matters with many situations involving domestic violence. In Winona, Andrea met Loretta Frederick who worked with the Battered Women’s Justice Project out of Minneapolis, MN (BWJP). Through Loretta, Andrea became more involved in the local Women’s Resource Center and the battered women’s movement. Seeking a change from direct representation work, Andrea moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1998 and joined the civil office of the BWJP which was part of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV). For the next seven years, Andrea worked as a lawyer in the domestic violence movement. Starting in 2003, Andrea began working as a policy analyst for PCADV’s National Resource Center on Domestic Violence which changed her legal system focus to economic justice work.

In 2005, Andrea attended an oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Castle Rock v. Gonzales. In that case, a local Colorado private civil rights attorney represented a mother of three children who had been killed by the mother’s ex-husband. The constitutional issues involved whether or not the Town of Castle Rock and the police department deprived the mother of her property interest in the Colorado court order she had obtained to protect her children. Realizing at the argument that the Court was going to eliminate procedural due process as a method of accountability for law enforcement taking seriously the woman’s court order, Andrea saw that she should use her legal skills on behalf of individuals fighting for their civil rights.

With her belief that employment is such a key aspect for meeting basic human needs, Andrea knew she should work as a lawyer to enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act and succeeding civil rights legislation meant to give workers a fair opportunity to earn a living without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, or disability. Additionally, she knew that more civil rights lawyers were needed to help individuals enforce their economic. rights.

Andrea primarily represents workers in a broad array of employment law cases such as: unemployment, harassment, discrimination, wrongful discharge, public employees, severance negotiations, disability or accommodation requests, retaliation, wage and hour, and family medical leave. She has litigated over 52 federal court cases in the Eastern and Middle District of PA and she regularly practices before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She represents employment law claimants in AAA Arbitrations & Mediation.

Andrea is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, including in the Eastern District and Middle District Federal Courts, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Andrea is a Top Rated Employment Litigation Attorney as recognized by Super Lawyers, from 2016 to the present.

She is a regular presenter and conference planner on employment law topics for the Lancaster Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.

Andrea focuses her bar work on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and improving representation for individuals with disabilities.

Andrea is an active member of the Lancaster Bar Association (LBA). She is the current Nominating Committee Chair and has served on the Diversity Committee and the Women’s Affinity Group, known now as the Women in the Profession Committee. She is also active in the LBA Labor Law & Employment Section and has served as chair twice. She represents the Lancaster Bar Association as a Zone 3 delegate to the PBA House of Delegates.

At the state level, Andrea is an active member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, including the Disabilities Services Committee, the Minority Bar Committee and the Women in the Profession Commission (WIP). She is a past Chair of the Disabilities Services Committee and served as a Diversity Ambassador on the PBA’s initial Diversity Team. With the Minority Bar Committee, she has co-chaired the PBA DEI Summit for many years and has served as MBC Secretary. For the WIP, she co-chairs the Diversity Committee and has worked to plan the Annual Conference and on the Legislative Committee. She is currently working with the LGBTQ+ Rights Committee on a white paper addressing Title IX, athletics, and fairness and equity for trans and cis women.

Before joining Triquetra Law in 2006, Andrea concentrated her efforts on advocacy strategies to further economic opportunity, resource enhancement and justice for battered women as a Policy Analyst with the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV). At the NRCDV from 2003 to 2006, Andrea developed special collections on economic policy issues for the National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women (VAWnet) and supported a growing national network of advocates striving to provide comprehensive solutions to domestic violence. From 1998 to 2003, Andrea held multiple positions within the Legal Department of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV), including Managing Attorney, Senior Attorney and Counsel to the Civil Justice Center of the Battered Women’s Justice Project. As Managing Attorney of PCADV, Andrea managed the coalition’s legal offices in Harrisburg, PA and Washington, DC. In this position, Andrea supervised senior staff attorneys directing national civil justice work and Pennsylvania-based statewide legal advocacy. She also oversaw and gave technical assistance to criminal and civil legal system personnel, domestic violence advocates, and public policymakers on domestic violence and economic justice issues.

Andrea began her legal career in 1990 as a staff attorney with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) in Winona, Minnesota. For nearly eight years, Andrea practiced family law with an emphasis on domestic violence representation. Her primary work involved contested child support, custody, civil protection orders, divorce, paternity, and alimony cases. While at SMRLS, Andrea co-authored a state-wide form book for family law practitioners and developed legal curriculum for court-sponsored divorce education programs. Andrea also represented clients in Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income matters, as well as general consumer law. In 1993, Andrea received the Outstanding Volunteer Attorney award for Winona County, MN. Andrea was an elected attorney representative to SMRLS’ Sexual Harassment Committee and also served on SMRLS’ Diversity Committee.

Andrea is a current member of the Lancaster-branch NAACP. She also serves as a Judge of Elections/Poll worker for the Lancaster County Board of Elections and Registration Commission.