Adriana Zichy
Lawyer, she/her/hers
416.968.3333
416.968.0325
azichy@upfhlaw.ca
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Assistant
Rachel Lobaina Patten 416.642.4506
rlobainapatten@upfhlaw.ca
Adriana Zichy is an accomplished lawyer who brings to her work a diligent and methodical approach to marshaling complex facts in difficult cases.
Since joining the firm as an associate in 2020, Adriana’s practice has focused primarily in the transit and construction sectors. She has worked on numerous high-profile cases in transit advocacy, including both advisory and litigation work.
Adriana cares deeply about advancing the interests of working people and she has been marching in picket lines since she was a child. As the daughter of union members, Adriana understands firsthand the importance of union representation at work.
She received her Juris Doctor from Queen’s University, where she earned numerous awards and course prizes, including for labour law, law and poverty and collective agreement arbitration. Adriana served as a senior editor with the Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal and worked as a research assistant with the Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace. In 2018, she placed first at the Canadian National Labour Arbitration Competition. Prior to law school, Adriana worked as a political and union organizer.
Adriana is a member of the Ontario Bar Association and the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers.
Decisions of Interest
Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113 v. Ontario, 2024 ONCA 407 (CanLII)
- In this landmark case, the Ontario Court of Appeal found that Ontario violated the Charter by removing the right to strike of TTC workers. The UPFH team was led by Ian Fellows and, in addition to Adriana, included Kristen Allen, Joanna Birenbaum, and Emily Home.
Toronto Transit Commission v. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, 2021 CanLII 44947 (ON LA)
- As co-counsel on behalf of the union, Adriana’s representation helped to persuade the arbitrator to reinstate a bus operator convicted of careless driving to a non-driving position. This decision confirms that in determining the appropriate penalty for employee misconduct, the nature of the misconduct must be balanced with its consequences, such that misconduct with serious consequences will not necessarily irreparably damage the employment relationship when all the circumstances of the case are considered. This award was upheld by the Divisional Court in Toronto Transit Commission v. Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113, 2022 ONSC 2766 (CanLII).
Toronto Transit Commission v. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, 2022 CanLII 55019 (ON LA)
- Adriana served as co-counsel on behalf of the union in a case which stands for the principle that in disciplinary demotions – whether imposed by the employer or an arbitrator – the demotion must be tailored to its purpose and should do the least amount of damage possible to the employee’s financial and seniority interests.
Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113 v. Toronto Transit Commission, 2022 CanLII 22222
- Adriana was one of several counsellors representing the union in an interest arbitration pursuant to the Toronto Transit Commission Labour Disputes Resolution Act, 2011.