Darin M. Dalmat

Recognizing the extraordinary economic struggles that confront working people, Darin vigorously advocates for workers and their unions. A seasoned litigator, Darin has successfully managed complex litigation and prevailed at trial and on appeal. Combining sharp analysis with creative problem-solving, Darin seeks to identify, in seemingly settled areas of law, unexpected opportunities to advance workers' rights and hold employers accountable for their violations. His practice spans a variety of industries, with particular expertise in all manner of litigation, the Railway Labor Act, wage-and-hour law, and representation of unions in bankruptcy reorganizations. A Senior Editor of the leading RLA treatise, he is often invited to speak on the RLA at ABA conferences.

Darin has also partnered with community organizations, such as the D.C. Employment Justice Center, which awarded him its 2013 William W. Anderson Co-Counsel of the Year, and the Public Justice Center, which recognized him as its 2015 Outstanding Partner. He was also selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star for 2016-19.

Before joining the firm, Darin was a partner at James & Hoffman and in-house counsel to SEIU. He is the author of Bringing Economic Justice Closer to Home: The Legal Viability of Local Minimum Wage Laws Under Home Rule, 39 Colum. J.L. & Soc. Probs. 93 (2005).

Representative Work:

• Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters Local 174, 598 U.S. __ (2023): As counsel of record, defended the right to strike before the U.S. Supreme Court. Maintained the existing framework for federal labor preemption (Garmon preemption): state claims challenging conduct even arguably protected by federal labor law remain subject to the Labor Board’s sole jurisdiction. And maintained broad protections for striking by limiting the exception to the objective test under longstanding law (strikers lose their protections when they fail to take reasonable precautions to avoid foreseeable imminent and aggravated harm to employer property from a sudden work stoppage); a super-majority of the Court rebuffed the employer’s efforts to broaden the exception to include all strikes where workers intend to harm the employer or its property.
• Miller v. Sawant, 2023 WL 2428144 (W.D. Wash. Mar. 9, 2023): Successfully defended Councilmember Sawant’s freedom to call the police killing of Che Taylor a “murder” indicative of “deeply unequal,” systemic “racial injustice.”
• Liang et al. v. Wash. Dept. of Soc. & Health Servs., No. 20-2-02506-34 (Thurston Cty. Super. Ct.); SEIU 775 v. Wash. Dep’t of Soc. & Health Servs., No. 97216-8 (Wash. Supreme Ct.); SEIU 775 v. Wash. Dept. of Soc. & Health Servs., No. 99659-8 (Wash. Supreme Ct.): Co-lead counsel in multi-year litigation that resulted in a $116 million class settlement on behalf of nearly 56,000 caregivers who provided personal care services to clients whose paid care hours were reduced by DSHS because of DSHS’s “shared benefit” rules and a settlement that ended administrative “shared benefit” rules that, according to home care workers and their union, shortchanged caregiver wages.
• Karstetter v. King County Corrections Guild, 23 Wn. App. 2d 361, 516 P.3d 415 (2022), rev. denied, 200 Wn.2d 1024, 522 P.3d 46 (2023): Obtained summary judgment for union, and sustained it on appeal, against claims by former attorney for wrongful termination and breach of contract—ending seven years of litigation.
• Airlines for America v. Washington Dep't of Labor & Indus., 859 Fed. Appx. 181 (9th Cir. 2021).: On behalf of intervening Association of Flight Attendants, argued appeal and successfully defended flight attendants’ and pilots’ right to paid sick leave under Washington law, against airlines’ constitutional and preemption challenges.
• Columbia Export Terminal, LLC v. ILWU, 2 F.4th 1243 (9th Cir. 2021): Successfully argued appeal on behalf of union and 154 employees defending against RICO claims alleging mail-and-wire fraud based on employees’ wage claims under their collective-bargaining agreement.
• Freedom Foundation v. Teamsters Local 117 Segregated Fund, 197 Wn.2d 116, 480 P.3d 1119 (2021): On a matter of first impression, successfully argued appeal to the Washington Supreme Court and defended three unions from harassing campaign-finance litigation; established that private organization failed to comply with statutory prerequisites for citizen’s action.
• SEIU 775 v. Evergreen Freedom Foundation, No. 16-2-12945-5 SEA (King Cty. Super. Ct. Nov. 24, 2020): Obtained summary judgment for union against anti-union organization that had conspired with a former union staffer to wrongfully traffic in the union’s confidential data.
• SEIU 775 v. State of Washington, No. 97216-8 (2020): Obtained direct review by the Washington Supreme Court of a trial court order sustaining a Department of Social and Health Services regulation that required home care workers to work without pay when the agency determined they shared in the benefit of the work they provided their home-care clients; on the eve of argument before the Supreme Court, negotiated a settlement resulting in the elimination of the longstanding agency rule.
• Alaska Airlines, Inc. v. Schurke, 898 F.3d 904 (9th Cir. 2018) (en banc), cert. denied 139 S. Ct. 1445 (2019): flight attendants' state-law statutory rights to paid family care not preempted by RLA.
• Murray v. Amalgamated Transit Union, 719 Fed. Appx. 5 (D.C. Cir. 2018): successfully defended union at trial against LMRDA claims and sustained verdict on appeal.
• Salinas v. Commercial Interiors, Inc., 848 F.3d 125 (4th Cir. 2017): established joint employer liability against a general contractor; an issue of first impression in the Fourth Circuit.
• ASII v. IAM, District Lodge 160, 2017 WL 11140352 (D. Alaska Aug. 22, 2017): defeated strike injunction sought by ASII against fuelers based on lack of RLA jurisdiction. Fuelers successfully negotiated contract.
• Herrera v. Command Security Corp., 837 F.3d 979 (9th Cir. 2016): prevailed on enforceability of status quo claims by voluntarily recognized union; issue of first impression nationwide.
• ASII v. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, Local 117, 779 F.3d 1069 (9th Cir. 2015) (en banc): vacated strike injunction against unrepresented fuelers because carrier failed to take reasonable efforts to settle dispute; issue of first impression nationwide.
• In re AMR Corp., 477 B.R. 384 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Aug. 15, 2012): defeated American's Section 1113 motion to reject CBA in bankruptcy.