Charles R. Both

For the past 55 years Charles Both has been committed to representing individual employees, groups of employees, labor and other non-profit organizations, employee benefit plans and international human rights activists. As of July 1, 2022, Mr. Both has retired from the active practice of law and will not be accepting any new assignments. He will be available to provide follow-up assistance and historical prespectives to former clients, colleagues and others with whom he proudly worked over the course of his productive career.

As a founding partner in the highly regarded labor litigation firm of Yablonski, Both and Edelman his work has involved a wide range of employment issues most notably, internal union governance, unfair labor practices, employment discrimination, wrongful terminations, and health and pension benefits. Mr. Both devotes his practice to the representation of labor organizations, non-profit organizations and individual employees before a wide range of trial and appellate courts, arbitration panels, federal and state labor boards, and fair employment agencies. He has successfully handled suits under the Employee-Retirement Income and Security Act (ERISA) with issues involving fiduciary and third-party liability, federal tax, asset reversion and collection of unpaid contributions.

In recent years, Charles Both has worked to advance international human rights on behalf of clients who are opponents of corrupt and harshly oppressive foreign regimes - specifically in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. He has effectively represented dissident political parties, individual candidates, and journalists before international organizations - including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, and Interpol. He has persuasively lobbied on behalf of these clients before legislative and executive branches of the United States government.

Charles Both grew up in New York City and is a graduate of the New York State School of Industrial Labor Relations at Cornell University and the Georgetown University Law Center -where he was an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. After work as an appellate attorney at the NLRB and at the Washington, D.C. firm of Cole & Groner, he joined in establishing in 1975, Yablonski Both & Edelman, where he remained as a principal partner for more than thirty years. (See www.ybelaw.com for historical information about the firm).

Mr. Both has consistently earned an A-V rating from Martindale Hubble, the pre-eminent law firm rating service in the United States, which is the highest rating that a practicing lawyer can receive and is based on a survey of his professional colleagues. He has been included in Best Lawyers in America since 2003 and Washington SuperLawyers since 2006. In August 2007, Mr. Both accepted an appointment as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the American University-Washington College of Law where he will be co-teaching an Employment Discrimination/Trial Practice Seminar.

Mr. Both has been recognized for his pro bono contribution to the representation of victims of employment, housing and disability discrimination by both the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and the Metropolitan Washington Housing Opportunities Council.

Charles Both has been a leader in the Bar, serving as chairman of the Labor Relations section of the D.C. Bar and as a member of the ABA Committee on Development of the Law of Union Administration and Procedure. He has served on the boards of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and the Washington Metropolitan Fair Housing Council. He is a member of the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court and several U.S. Courts of Appeals.

As of July 1, 2022, Mr. Both has retired from the active practice of law and will not be accepting any new assignments. He will be available to provide follow-up assistance and historical prespectives to former clients, colleagues and others with whom he proudly worked over the course of his productive career.