Today we’d like to introduce you to Peggy Farrell.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born in rural Minnesota and raised in a Catholic/Jewish household to parents who valued education and diversity. They taught me to question the status quo and treat others how I wanted to be treated from an early age. I initially pursued a career in music and was (at one time) an accomplished classical violinist who toured Asia with her orchestra when I was 17.
By the time I graduated from the High School) where both my parents taught (that was a tough one sometimes), I had become an impassioned activist for the homeless and disenfranchised members of my community, specifically, the fight against discrimination for persons with HIV/AIDS. When I was 15, my uncle was diagnosed with HIV and died from AIDS – related complications in 1990. I was deeply affected by the unparalleled acts of discrimination he experienced in his workplace and within all aspects of his life while dying from a disease that had no cure. The legal community was helpless and completely without resources to address the needs of persons with HIV/AIDS which was not considered a disability until 1990 in California. This and other societal and economic injustices experienced by the stigmatized and disenfranchised moved me to focus on a legal career to advocate for those who have been traditionally barred from accessing justice.
After my uncle’s death, I applied to his alma mater, Occidental College where graduated with “distinction,” receiving an Advanced Bachelor of Arts in “Politics,” and a Minor in “Women’s Studies.” During college, I had the opportunity to spend a semester in Washington, D.C. through Occidental’s “Washington Semester” program for Politics majors. I worked as an intern for a U.S. Senator. Working in Washington was the first time I really experienced discrimination because of my gender, the denial of equal opportunities and sexual harassment. On one occasion, feeling lucky enough to go to the floor of the Senate, I found myself in an elevator for four of the most powerful men in the nation, including former Senator Strom Thurmond. Upon introducing himself and asking me where I was from, I informed him I was from Minnesota. He said, “I hope you are from the southern part of the state.” When I answered “yes,” he then went on to ask what I had on “down south.” I gave no response because of the laughter, but recall vividly how it made the comment and the laughter was humiliating and made me feel small and insignificant.
This experience and others were formidable reminders of what I would need to overcome if I wanted to be successful and I was even more determined to do so. After college, I took two years off and worked for a law firm as a paralegal and then went to law school in New York, where I obtained my law degree from the City University of New York School of Law at Queens College (CUNY), a law school dedicated to training public interest lawyers. During law school, I worked as a fellow for Center for Constitutional Rights (New York and Mississippi), Harlem Legal Aid, the national office of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Since obtaining my license to practice law in 2000, I have worked almost exclusively representing employees who have endured discrimination by their employers based on sex/gender, sexual orientation or LGBTQ, persons subject to retaliation because they were stalked, sexually assaulted or abused, due to disability (including HIV/AIDS), race/color, national origin (including language), whistleblower activities and unfair wages.
After eight years in private practice, I accepted a position as the Legal Director and Discrimination/Privacy Attorney with the HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance (HALSA). I oversaw attorneys in four practice areas, Employment, Housing, Public Benefits and Immigration. Due to material funding losses in 2009, HALSA was shut down in 2010. During this time I provided pro bono legal services to homeless youth and persons with or at risk for HIV/AIDS or other harms, including Common Ground, the Westside HIV Center- Homeless Youth & Prevention Project (“HYPE”) (grant from California Endowment) and the Los Angeles Community Health Project (formerly, “Clean Needles Now”). Peggy also worked on cases with the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School and other non-profits. I continued my work with persons with HIV/AIDS on a pro bono basis and later worked as the Supervising Trial Attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Los Angeles District Office.
In 2011, I was hired as an adjunct law professor to teach “Non-Profit Corporations” and later designed and taught the first public interest law practice course ever offered at Southwestern, entitled, “Public Interest Law Practice,” which I have co-taught with Professor and Housing Attorney, Thomas DeBoe for the last eight years. In 2014, my life changed in a way that no one would expect or want. At that time, my son was four years old and I was a solo parent. For the first time since my marriage ended a year before, I started dating a man I met on a dating website. He ended our four months involvement in December 2013, and I did not hear from him for some time, three or four months, until he began stalking me, threatening my life, my son’s life and vandalizing my home and car. I obtained a TRO which he violated and admitted to violating in open Court, however no action was taken by the Court or police to protect me. My experience with the police who were supposed to protect me and the Court who was supposed to enforce protections was horrific. He was later apprehended and charged with multiple felony counts for stalking and criminal threats, at which time he received a felony strike and was sentenced to five years at half time.
Despite the shame and humiliation, I felt and the fact that I thought no one would understand, I learned that I was wrong. Mutual friends who knew about my experience put me in contact with two of the most amazing, resilient women I have ever known, Lenora Claire and Pauley Perette. Pauley later introduced me to another amazing woman who shared our experiences named Katherine. They saved my life. There is simply no other way to say it. Perfect strangers, they listened to my story and shared their experience and advice and for the first time in four years, I was able to talk about what happened to me, my fears and shame without judgment or ridicule. Through their support, I spoke out publicly about my story on national television after four years of total silence and isolation. I was interviewed by Erin Moriarty, on a special two hour 48 Hours expose called “Stalked.” Erin and the producers Greg Fisher, Liza Finely, Sarah Timberman, Leslie Neigher and others helped me to talk about what happened to me and continue to support me and my son as I ready myself to testify against my stalker for his recent arrest (yes he was arrested again for stalking me a second time). With time served and the half time rule, he was out of prison after 2 ½ years for stalking me in 2014. Instead of trying to rebuild his life, he used his nine months of freedom to stalk me and my son again. He is currently awaiting trial.
While I am not an advocate for stalking survivors like Pauley or Lenora, I have used my expertise as a lawyer to represent as many women (or men) as I can who have been terminated or retaliated against because they were stalked at work or subjected to domestic abuse. Despite what I have experienced, sharing that experience was the first step to getting my life back—and allowed me to start my own law firm focused on stalking and abuse as a violation of civil rights and holding employers accountable. While I probably didn’t need to do it on national TV, looking back, I cherish every moment of my interview the support I received from family and friends after the episode aired was overwhelming. Our silence is our downfall.
Has it been a smooth road?
Is it ever? Being a female litigator has its own challenges, but balancing career and child is something I have worked hard to do. I will drop everything for my son, even if I’m in the middle of closing arguments. Some understand some don’t, but shifting my priorities from being entirely engaged in my work to having a life has been the challenge. I do not have social media because of my stalker, so I rarely know what is going on in the back and forth of social networking, Finding time for myself is always a struggle, but it isn’t something I lose sleep about. You make time for what is important to you.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
My firm is dedicated to eradicating workplace discrimination in all forms. Workplace discrimination, based on race/color, sex/gender, sexual orientation, status as a victim of stalking or abuse, disability discrimination and failure to accommodate disabilities with focus on disabilities involve HIV/AIDS, whistleblower activities, retaliation and unfair wages. I also handle police abuse/misconduct cases for violations of federal civil rights.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love the diversity of everything from the people and languages spoken to the activities available, architecture, art community, presence of a political left and the weather of course. I am a board member of Death Penalty Focus, and there is a very active community around this issue in Los Angeles.
Least? That’s easy, the lack of affordable housing and expanding homeless/mentally ill on our streets without care or recourse… and well the traffic.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2658 Griffith Park Blvd., #114, Los Angeles, CA 90039
- Website: https://paflawoffice.com
- Phone: 7472291782
- Email: peggy@paflawoffice.com
Image Credit:
Jeffrey Fiterman at www.Fitermanphotography.com took the pics of me and my office.
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