Brenda believes the most important skill as a lawyer and as a human being is to be a good listener. By listening to her clients closely and with curiosity, she builds an understanding of who they are and where they want to go, and through that knowledge, helps them get there.
Brenda has a reputation as a dedicated and effective advocate for working people. She has represented public sector employee unions in the District of Columbia and surrounding jurisdictions for decades and is one of the best known and respected lawyers in the public sector labor law community in D.C. and Northern Virginia. Brenda has served as the lead attorney in dozens of contract negotiations, interest arbitrations, rights arbitrations, PERB cases, and legislative and budgetary initiatives to benefit working families. Clients know that they can turn to her as an experienced negotiator, litigator, strategist, and thoughtful advisor.
Prior to founding HZ Law with Mindy, Brenda was a partner practicing union-side labor law at Murphy Anderson PLLC from 2014-2026. Before joining Murphy Anderson, Brenda worked at another union-side labor law firm, O’Donnell, Schwartz & Anderson, PC, as a summer law clerk and associate attorney from 2001-2008, and returned as of-counsel and later as a partner from 2009-2014. Between 2008-2009, she took a sabbatical to work as a Staff Attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Before attending law school, Brenda participated in Union Summer in 1996 as an organizer in St. Louis, Missouri. She continued her passion for the labor movement working in support of organizing campaigns for SEIU and in research roles for UFCW and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.
