Andrea Kelly Smethurst is an attorney investigator who has conducted hundreds of workplace investigations for public and private employers.  She has also investigated student Title IX and other complaints in schools and colleges.  Andrea speaks Spanish fluently and regularly conducts investigations in which she interviews witnesses in Spanish.

 

Andrea also provides expert witness testimony on the adequacy of workplace investigations and has served as an Equal Employment Opportunity Monitor for employers required to implement a monitoring program.  As a Monitor, Andrea has overseen employer compliance with harassment and discrimination training requirements, developed complaint procedure policies and procedures, and overseen employer response to and investigation of employee complaints.  

 

Andrea is an honors graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and received her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley School of Law.  She is an Association of Workplace Investigators Training Institute Certificate Holder (AWI-CH), and serves on the faculty for this institute. 

 

Andrea is a member of the Executive Committee for the Labor and Employment Section of the California Lawyers Association. She was named to the list of Northern California Super Lawyers in 2024.

 

Andrea is a member of and past President of the Contra Costa County Bar Association's Employment Law Section.  She is also a former President and Vice President of the Northern California Employment Roundtable. 

 

Prior to founding this firm in 2001,  Andrea was an employment associate with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton and with Dillingham & Murphy. At these firms, she counseled employers on employment practices and policies. In addition, she represented employers in federal and state court and in administrative matters before the DFEH (now known as the Civil Rights Department), the EEOC and the Labor Commissioner.  

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