Joseph A. Yablonski
Chip Yablonski has represented employees and labor unions with spectacular success at every level of the court system from trial courts to the Supreme Court of the United States. He has successfully tried and settled cases involving traumatic injuries and wrongful death stemming from coal mine accidents and disasters and other workplace accidents. He has won seven and eight-figure verdicts and settlements on claims of employment discrimination and unpaid employer contributions to employee pension funds.
Chip Yablonski represented Carol Kolstad in Kolstad v. American Dental Association which culminated in the Supreme Court's decision substantially liberalizing the eligibility of plaintiffs to recover punitive damages under Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Kolstad v. American Dental Association, 527 U.S. 526 (1999). Chip Yablonski is recognized as a leader in the Washington, D.C. area in developing standards for court awards of attorney's fees to public-interest attorneys and firms. His success in Save Our Cumberland Mountains v. Hodel, 857 F.2d 1516 (D.C. Cir. 1988)("SOCM"), led to the development of a "matrix" of hourly rates for determining statutory fees in federal and local courts in the District of Columbia and in administrative proceedings. This matrix has proved to be a substantial factor in encouraging attorneys to undertake representation of discrimination victims who could not otherwise afford legal counsel.
Chip Yablonski has served for twenty-five years as outside counsel for the NFL Players Association ("NFLPA"). He has represented NFLPA in federal court litigation involving the antitrust laws, ERISA, employment discrimination and diverse common-law issues.
Raised in western Pennsylvania, Chip Yablonski is a graduate of St. Vincent College and the University of Pittsburgh law school where he was managing editor of the law review. After law school, Mr. Yablonski clerked for Chief Judge Austin L. Staley on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and worked as an appellate attorney at the National Labor Relations Board. With the late Joe Rauh, Chip Yablonski spearheaded lawsuits that brought about the historic democratic reforms of the United Mine Workers union where he later served as General Counsel and represented the union in national collective bargaining. In 1975, ChipYablonski left the UMW and joined in establishing Yablonski Both & Edelman.
A member of the District of Columbia bar, Chip Yablonski is also admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and Maryland. He is a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers and the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court and virtually every U.S. Court of Appeals. He is a member of the D.C. Circuit Advisory Committee on Procedures, the D.C. Circuit Judicial Conference, and the Board of Directors of the UDC School of Law Foundation.
