Andrea E. Zoia

Overview

Andrea E. Zoia handles a variety of employment matters facing businesses. A significant part of her practice involves providing day-to-day employment law counsel and advice. She advises in-house counsel and human resource professionals with wage and hour issues, workplace investigations, drug testing, hiring practices, employment policies and handbooks, reductions in force, and employee leave matters. Due to her deep experience with employment laws and compliance, clients regularly invite Andrea to conduct onsite trainings on the prevention of unlawful harassment and on other employment matters in the workplace.

When litigation is necessary, Andrea skillfully defends employers against workplace allegations such as employment discrimination, retaliation, wrongful discharge, Family and Medical Leave Act claims, breach of contract, and wage and hour class actions. Her experience includes obtaining summary judgment for clients, including a recent case where she prevailed on all counts raised by a former higher education employee in federal court, including claims of gender and disability discrimination, retaliation, and interference with her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act. She similarly secured summary judgment for a restaurant client on claims related to a voluntary employee benefits program that called for a deduction from employee’s wages, successfully arguing that the program constituted a valid set-off permitted by the Massachusetts Wage Act. Her experience also includes bringing a case through a jury trial in Massachusetts Superior Court and successfully defending a client against multiple appeals at the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

In addition to appearing in federal and state courts, Andrea appears before government agencies including the EEOC, MCAD, Department of Labor, and numerous other state anti-discrimination agencies across the country.

During law school, Andrea interned for a magistrate judge in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and in the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office and worked in the general counsel’s office of a large not-for-profit health care system, focusing on employment and labor-related issues.