Joseph A. (“Chip”) 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. He has been lead counsel in more than 120 reported decisions issued by the federal and state courts.

Mr. 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). Mr. Yablonski is also 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.

Mr. Yablonski has served as outside counsel for the NFL Players Association ("NFLPA") for nearly thirty years. He has represented NFLPA in federal court litigation throughout the United States involving the antitrust laws, ERISA, agent-regulations, employment discrimination and diverse common-law issues. He obtained a judgment in a price-fixing case against the National Football League of more than $30,000,000, the largest verdict in the D.C. Courts that year. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Brown v. Pro Football, Inc., 1992-1 Trade Cas. (CCH), 1993 Trade Cas. (CCH), 821 F.Supp. 20 (D.D.C. 1993), rev’d., 50 F.3d 1041 (D.C.Cir. 1995), aff’d., 518 U.S. 231 (1996). He is currently representing the NFLPA in an action in Atlanta, Georgia brought by six NFL Players attempting to hold the NFLPA accountable to them for $20 million in losses they incurred by investing in a hedge fund operated by a financial advisor allegedly registered in the NFLPA’s Financial Advisors Program. After the District Court entered summary judgment on behalf of the NFLPA, plaintiffs appealed, and the case is now before the Eleventh Circuit. Atwater v. NFLPA, 2009 WL 3254925 (N.D.Ga., March 27, 2009), appeal pending, 11th Cir. No. 09-12556-B.

Mr. Yablonski also established the now widely-followed principle that conduct by in-house union lawyers in the representation of employees is analyzed under the duty of fair representation. Peterson v. Kennedy, 771 F.2d 1244 (9th Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1122 (1986).

The NFLPA recently turned to Mr. Yablonski to litigate a closely watched test case involving the disability claim of a former NFL Player suffering cognitive impairment and early dementia after sustaining multiple concussions and head trauma during his NFL career. That matter has been fully tried and is awaiting a decision in final and binding arbitration.

Raised in western Pennsylvania, Chip Yablonski is a graduate of St. Vincent College and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law 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.

At the age of 31, Mr. Yablonski assembled an extraordinary staff of in-house lawyers, a group that included three former Supreme Court Law Clerks and the current president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka. Mr. Yablonski received The Jefferson Award in 1973 for the Greatest Public Service by an Individual Under the Age of 35. In 1975, Mr. Yablonski left the UMW and joined in establishing Yablonski Both & Edelman, which partnership endured 31 years, until August 1, 2006.

A member of the District of Columbia bar, Mr. Yablonski is also admitted to practice in Maryland and Pennsylvania (currently inactive). He is a member of the American Association for Justice (formerly ATLA), the Sports Lawyers Association and the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, virtually every U.S. Court of Appeals, and many U.S. District Courts.