Samuel J. Cordes

Sam primarily represents plaintiffs in employment discrimination, ERISA, civil rights and constitutional law matters.

Sam has tried numerous high profile cases in the Western District of Pennsylvania. He was lead counsel in the largest individual age discrimination verdict and largest pregnancy discrimination verdicts ever awarded in the Western District of Pennsylvania, and won the first employment case under the Americans with Disabilities Act to be tried to verdict in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Sam recently won the first case in Pennsylvania in which the Court found that a public employer’s failure to provide retiree spousal health care benefits to a gay couple violates Title VII and the Equal Protection Clause: Seech v. Gateway School District, GD16-05672 (C.P. Allegheny June 23, 2017). Some of his noteworthy appellate cases include: Karlo v. Pittsburgh Glass Works, 849 F.3d 61 (3d Cir. 2017); Ryder v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 128 F.3d 128 (3rd Cir.1997), cert denied, 522 U.S. 1116 (1998); Brewer v. Quaker State Oil Refining Corp., 72 F.3d 326 (3d Cir. 1995); Fiscus v. Wal-Mart, 385 F.3d 378 (3d Cir. 2004); Boyle v. Allegheny County, 139 F.3d 386 (3d Cir. 1998); Robinson v. Pittsburgh, 120 F.3d 1286 (3d Cir. 1997); Fowler-Nash v. Democratic Caucus of Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 469 F.3d 328 (3d Cir. 2006); Armour v. County of Beaver, 271 F.3d 417 (3d Cir. 2001), cert denied, 535 U.S. 1079 (2002);

Best Lawyers in America® has designated Sam the Labor and Employment Lawyer of the Year for 2017. He is a Fellow of the National College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and a member of the Allegheny County Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is rated AV by Martindale-Hubble, and is listed in the 2004-2018 editions of The Best Lawyers in America®; the 2004-2017 editions of Pennsylvania Super Lawyers; the 2017 Top 100 Super Lawyers in Pennsylvania and the Top 50 Super Lawyers in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review calls Sam Cordes “the Archangel of employment rights” in Western Pennsylvania; an “excellent and extremely creative lawyer, which makes him dangerous for the opposition.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes that Sam Cordes is “extremely smart in the scholarly sense and has that practical street smart sense. You don’t see that combination in too many lawyers.”

Sam teaches and writes extensively on employment law and legal ethics. He has authored or co-authored more than 20 articles on employment law topics for local and national publications.  He often lectures on employment law topics for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, as well as other local and national organizations. He also is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Point Park University where he teaches graduate courses in Communications Law.