Named one of the 2012 Top Women Leaders in Law by The Recorder and one of the 2013 Top 100 Women Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal, Noreen Farrell’s entire legal career has been dedicated to the pursuit of social justice. As the Executive Director and previously the Managing Attorney/Legal Director at ERA, she has led ERA’s impact litigation efforts representing clients who have faced sex discrimination and other unfair treatment at school and work in class actions and individual cases.
Noreen has served as counsel to plaintiffs in numerous individual and class actions such as Dukes v. Wal-Mart (a pay and promotion suit on behalf of a putative class of 100,000 women workers pending in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California), Medina v. Station Casinos (a sexual harassment and wage and hour class action which resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement), Bojorquez v. ABM Industries (a case challenging sexual harassment and retaliation which reached a $812,000 jury verdict in May 2012), Mansourian v. Regents of the University of California (a Title IX case on behalf of women wrestlers which in a trial win and $1,350,000 settlement), and Brust v. Regents of the University of California (a Title IX case on behalf of a class of athletes which resulted in the addition of a women’s field hockey team, a groundbreaking settlement to ensure female students equal athletic opportunities. During her tenure, ERA has also been committed to advocating for women seeking entry into male-dominated trades, which resulted in a $2.46 million dollar jury verdict on behalf of a female fire recruit kicked out of the fire academy based on sex (Maher v. County of Fresno).
She also plays a leadership role in state and national coalitions advocating for the development of policy and legislation to assist women and girls and their families. Noreen lectures across the country and writes extensively on civil rights matters, including Expecting A Baby, Not A Lay-Off: Why Federal Law Should Require the Reasonable Accommodation of Pregnant Workers (ERA May 2012), Wal-Mart v. Dukes and Class Certification in Its Aftermath, CIVIL RIGHTS LITIGATION AND ATTORNEY FEES ANNUAL HANDBOOK, (Thomson Reuters 2012), Family Responsibilities Discrimination: The Interplay of Title VII, FMLA, & ADA (2010) and Old Problem, New Tactic: Making the Case for Legislation to Combat Employment Discrimination Based on Family Caregiving Status, 59 Hastings Law Journal 1463 (June 2008). Noreen is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Association of University Women, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the California Employment Lawyers Association.
Noreen is a graduate of Yale University and the University of California Hastings College of the Law, where she was Editor-In-Chief of the Hastings Women’s Law Journal.
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