Brenda Harkavy

Brenda Harkavy, Esq. is a fearless litigator, advocate and expert, who has devoted her career to pursuing justice on behalf of survivors of physical and sexual abuse, child abuse and exploitation, image-based sexual abuse, human trafficking, gender-based discrimination and harassment, and human rights violations.

Brenda has represented the interests of countless survivors, against powerful institutions, corporations, and predators. She represented numerous clients sexually abused by former University of Southern California (“USC”) gynecologist, George Tyndall. The case is the largest known sexual abuse case recovery and personal injury settlement against a university in U.S. history. She later counseled in a nationally publicized settlement against a physician who sexually abused countless patients at a renowned medical institution. She argued and won an appellate argument in New York, resulting in a precedent-setting decision that cleared the way for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file suits under a successor liability theory. Brenda serves as an advisor and faculty member at national and statewide conferences, presenting on topics such as sexual abuse litigation and trauma-aware lawyering.

Brenda began her career as a Special Victims Unit prosecutor in Baltimore City. As a prosecutor, she litigated hundreds of sexual assault, child abuse, pornography, intimate partner violence, stalking, human trafficking, and homicide cases, in both state and federal courts. Brenda was known as a “bulldog” in the courtroom, taking cases to trial that others would not, as well as for her “hat-trick” performance where she achieved guilty verdicts in three consecutive jury trials in two weeks. In addition to being a resolute and fierce litigator, she was dedicated to systemic change on behalf of survivors. She spearheaded training for law enforcement, educational institutions, and the public on intimate partner violence, strangulation lethality and the use of experts to explain survivor psychology. Brenda also drafted and testified in support of legislation to enhance survivor rights and protections.

Brenda’s devotion to seeking justice for survivors began in her youth. While a college student at the University of Pennsylvania, Brenda established a fundraiser to advocate for female factory workers in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico from gender-based violence and lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied and wrote her thesis on the plight of mothers searching for their kidnapped and “disappeared” children during Argentina’s civil war. After college, Brenda was a case manager providing crisis intervention to adult and juvenile survivors of physical and sexual abuse, as well as human trafficking. During law school, Brenda was elected President of the Women’s Law Association, represented political and gender-based asylum-seekers as a student attorney at the International Human Rights Law Clinic. She also secured an internship where she provided immigration assistance to girls escaping forced marriages and honor killings in their countries of origin.

Brenda was named an ALM 2024 Lawyer on the Fast Track and Super Lawyers Rising Star. In 2024, Pennsylvania and Delaware Super Lawyers Magazine chose to write an article to emphasize her lifelong commitment to advancing and advocating for the rights of abused women and children. As a prosecutor, she was the second prosecutor ever to be awarded the Victoria F. Gelfman Legal Excellence Award, given to only one prosecutor state-wide whose “integrity, ability, community involvement, and commitment to justice exemplify the best of the legal profession.”

She serves in several leadership positions, including Board President of the Support Center for Child Advocates; serving on the Board of Governors and as a Co-Chair of the Women's Rights Committee for the Philadelphia Bar Association, Co-Chair of the Women's Legislative Subcommittee for the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and Co-Chair of the American Association for Justice's Sexual Assault Litigation Group. She also has authored numerous articles on advocating for survivors.