Hon. Lori Karen Serratelli
Serratelli Schiffman Shaffer P.C.
Judge Serratelli’s career as a family and employment law attorney spans 42 years. In June 2016, she was honored with an appointment by Pennsylvania’s Governor and confirmed unanimously by the Pennsylvania Senate to the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas where she served in the Family Law Division and presided over Orphans’ Court, Naturalization Court and civil litigation matters.
Her appointment ended January 1, 2018 when she returned as “of counsel” to the firm she originally founded to handle complex family, Orphans’ Court and employment matters. Additionally, she is a trained Mediator in family, employment, and personal injury law as well as Orphan’s Court matters. She is a strong advocate of mediation as an alternative to litigation when appropriate. Accordingly, she has opened Serratelli Dispute Resolutions. L.L.C. offering mediation and arbitration services. She was recently certified in Dauphin County as a Parenting Coordinator under the new Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, handling high conflict custody matters by appointment of the family law judges. She has presented several Parenting Coordination workshops throughout Central Pennsylvania.
In her employment practice, she represents clients in both administrative and federal court before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in sexual harassment and race, sex, disability and age discrimination cases. This includes mediation before the EEOC and in Federal court.
Ms. Serratelli is a member of the Family Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Family Law Section of the Dauphin County Bar Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Middle District Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. She is a certified mediator for the Middle District Mediation Program and member of the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators.
She has lectured extensively on mediation, employment discrimination and family law matters and has been a participant, presenter, and advocate for sexual harassment training programs. She also has experience as an independent sexual harassment investigator on behalf of employers. She serves on the Board of directors of PA CASA, the Dauphin County Victims Witness Assistance Program, and as Chair of the Dauphin County CASA. She served as a trained CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) in Cumberland County. In June 2019 she was honored to receive the Jefferson Award for her community service over her career culminating with the development of the Dauphin County CASA program, a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization which trains advocates who are appointed by the Court to assist the Judge in making the best determination for children in dependency through abuse and/or neglect.
She was appointed by Governor Wolf in January 2018 to serve on the Victims Service Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, representing PA CASA.
After earning her B.A. in English from the University of Vermont in 1975, Ms. Serratelli received her Juris Doctorate from Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio in 1978. During her time in law school, she co-authored a law review article on child support issues. She was admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1978 and subsequently was admitted to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals; the United States Supreme Court; and U.S. District Court, Middle, Eastern and Western Districts. Ms. Serratelli founded what would become Serratelli, Schiffman & Brown, P.C. in 1978 to offer her services as a family and employment attorney. Steven J. Schiffman then joined in 1980 to form the partnership of Serratelli and Schiffman which evolved over the years to Serratelli, Schiffman & Brown, P.C. When Judge Serratelli was appointed in June 2016, the firm was renamed Schiffman, Sheridan & Brown, P.C.