Pittsburgh has undergone one of the most remarkable economic transformations of any American city over the past four decades, evolving from the steel industry capital of the world into a diversified knowledge economy anchored by world-class healthcare systems — UPMC and Allegheny Health Network — Carnegie Mellon University’s technology and artificial intelligence research enterprise, a growing financial services sector, robotics and autonomous vehicle technology development, and energy industry employment that still reflects Pittsburgh’s industrial heritage. This extraordinary economic diversification has created a sophisticated and rapidly evolving employment law market where workers in industries from hospital systems and university research to autonomous vehicle technology and financial services face a wide range of workplace legal challenges.
Pennsylvania’s employment law framework provides workers with protections that go beyond federal law in important respects. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act — PHRA — prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, and several other protected characteristics, and is administered through the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission — PHRC — which provides a state administrative process that experienced Pittsburgh employment attorneys pursue alongside the EEOC federal charge process. The Pennsylvania Equal Pay Law, the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act, and the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law provide additional state-level protections that complement federal law and that skilled Pittsburgh employment attorneys leverage to maximize their clients’ available remedies.
1. Samuel J. Cordes — Ogg, Cordes, Murphy and Ignelzi
Samuel Cordes is one of Pittsburgh’s most highly regarded plaintiff-side employment attorneys, with a practice at Ogg Cordes Murphy and Ignelzi that has represented Pittsburgh area workers in discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and civil rights cases for over two decades. Cordes has been recognized by Super Lawyers Pennsylvania in employment law for multiple consecutive years and has been included in Best Lawyers in America — reflecting the sustained peer recognition that comes from consistently excellent, high-impact work over a distinguished Pittsburgh employment law career.
Cordes’s practice encompasses the full range of federal and Pennsylvania state employment law claims — Title VII, the ADEA, the ADAAA, the FMLA, the FLSA, the PHRA, and the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law — giving his clients comprehensive coverage of every available employment law protection. His experience before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and in the Western District of Pennsylvania federal court reflects the comprehensive procedural knowledge that effective Pittsburgh employment representation requires.
His deep familiarity with Pittsburgh’s major employment sectors — particularly the healthcare systems, universities, and technology companies that dominate the city’s evolving economy — provides his clients with specialized insight into the specific employment law issues that arise in Pittsburgh’s distinctive economic landscape. For Pittsburgh workers who need experienced, committed advocacy in discrimination, retaliation, and civil rights cases against the city’s most powerful institutional employers, Cordes represents one of the strongest available advocates in the regional market.
2. Christine Elzer — Elzer Law Firm LLC
Christine Elzer is a highly regarded Pittsburgh plaintiff-side employment attorney at Elzer Law Firm whose practice focuses exclusively on representing employees who have experienced discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination in Pennsylvania workplaces. Elzer has been recognized by Super Lawyers Pennsylvania in employment law and has developed a strong reputation in the Pittsburgh legal community for combining thorough, sophisticated legal analysis with genuine personal commitment to her clients’ outcomes.
Elzer’s practice encompasses claims under Title VII, the ADEA, the ADAAA, the FMLA, the PHRA, and the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law — reflecting comprehensive coverage of the federal and state employment law protections available to Pittsburgh workers. Her experience before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission — the mandatory first-step administrative body for many Pennsylvania discrimination claims — and in the Western District of Pennsylvania reflects the procedural depth that effective Pittsburgh employment representation demands.
Her practice’s particular depth in cases involving gender discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and sexual harassment — areas where Pittsburgh’s large healthcare and education workforce generates significant legal demand and where the PHRA’s protections complement federal Title VII to provide important additional remedies — reflects specialized expertise that workers in these situations genuinely need in their employment law advocate.
3. Pamina Ewing — Kraemer Manes and Associates LLC
Pamina Ewing is a Pittsburgh employment attorney at Kraemer Manes and Associates whose practice focuses on representing employees in discrimination, FMLA, ADA, wage and hour, and retaliation cases throughout Western Pennsylvania. Ewing has been recognized by Super Lawyers Pennsylvania as a Rising Star in employment law and has developed a reputation for combining aggressive advocacy with genuine accessibility to Pittsburgh workers across economic backgrounds who need quality employment law representation.
Her practice encompasses the full range of federal employment law claims alongside Pennsylvania state employment law protections — giving clients comprehensive coverage of both federal and state remedies in a legal framework where pursuing parallel claims under the PHRA alongside federal charges often provides important strategic and substantive advantages.
Her experience before the PHRC and in the Western District of Pennsylvania reflects the procedural knowledge that effective Pittsburgh employment representation requires, and her firm Kraemer Manes and Associates’ established reputation in the Pittsburgh employment law community provides her clients with institutional credibility that amplifies the quality of her individual advocacy.
4. Joshua Geist — Goodrich and Geist PC
Joshua Geist is a Pittsburgh plaintiff-side employment and civil rights attorney at Goodrich and Geist whose practice focuses on representing workers and individuals who have experienced employment discrimination, civil rights violations by government employers, and Section 1983 civil rights claims throughout Western Pennsylvania. Geist has been recognized by Super Lawyers Pennsylvania in civil rights litigation and has developed a reputation for combining sophisticated constitutional law analysis with effective employment advocacy in cases that involve government employer defendants.
His practice’s particular strength in Section 1983 civil rights cases against government employers — an area of significant importance in Pittsburgh given the city’s large concentration of public school employees, city and county government workers, Port Authority employees, and other public sector workers — reflects specialized knowledge of the constitutional employment law framework that government employment disputes frequently require.
His experience before the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — which reviews federal employment cases from Pennsylvania — reflects appellate advocacy capability that provides clients in cases raising novel legal questions with representation that extends beyond trial court proceedings to address the full scope of federal court review.
5. Gary Lynch — Lynch Carpenter LLP
Gary Lynch is a Pittsburgh class action attorney at Lynch Carpenter whose practice encompasses complex employment class actions, FLSA collective actions, and Pennsylvania wage law class actions on behalf of workers who have been subjected to systematic wage theft and unlawful employment practices by major Pittsburgh area employers. Lynch has been recognized by Super Lawyers Pennsylvania in class action litigation and has built a practice that leverages sophisticated class action procedure to pursue systemic employment violations that affect large numbers of Pittsburgh workers simultaneously.
His particular expertise in FLSA collective actions and Pennsylvania wage class actions — representing groups of workers in aggregate litigation against employers who have systematically denied overtime pay, required off-the-clock work, or engaged in other systematic wage violations — reflects the specialized class action litigation skills that pursuing multi-plaintiff employment cases effectively requires.
His firm Lynch Carpenter’s established reputation in Pittsburgh class action litigation provides employment law clients with access to experienced class action infrastructure, research resources, and institutional credibility that individual plaintiff employment practices cannot match in the specific context of multi-plaintiff wage and employment class actions.
