Aaron S. Edelman

About

Aaron Edelman represents labor unions in court, arbitrations, administrative actions, and before Congress.

Mr. Edelman specializes in litigation under the Railway Labor Act and the National Labor Relations Act. He is an advocate for the advancement of high speed rail in the U.S. and has negotiated agreements with major entities moving forward with high speed rail projects to ensure that rail labor is a valued partner in the development of these projects. He serves as General Counsel to several rail unions and handles internal union governance issues under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act and related statutes as well as parliamentary procedure. Mr. Edelman is a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians and has served as a parliamentarian at union conventions and meetings.

Prior to joining Mooney Green, Mr. Edelman was an attorney at Garvey Schubert Barer, PC (now Foster Garvey, PC) where his administrative law practice focused on federal regulatory law, policy and litigation. He uses the transactional legal experience he gained at that firm to assist unions with drafting merger agreements, affiliation agreements, servicing agreements, and related transactions including real estate transfers.

Mr. Edelman also served as the primary legislative staffer for public and private sector labor policy for U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski. His legislative work focused on the Appropriations committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee. From his time in the Senate, he is most proud of working on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, sponsored by Senator Mikulski, and the first bill signed into law by President Barack Obama. At Mooney Green, he uses his legislative and regulatory expertise to advocate on behalf of unions and working people before Congressional committees and federal agencies.

Mr. Edelman represents unions before the Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board), the National Mediation Board, and the Federal Railroad Administration. On March 12, 2024, he was appointed by the Chairman of the STB to serve as an at-large representative on the agency’s Passenger Rail Advisory Committee to provide advice and guidance to the Board on passenger rail issues.

He is a senior editor of the Railway Labor Act treatise written by the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law’s Committee on Railway and Airline Labor Law and speaks at the ABA’s Railway Labor Act midwinter meetings. He is also a Visiting Lecturer at his alma mater, Cornell University, where he teaches a course on policy and legislation and its significance to the labor movement for undergraduate students at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR).

At the George Washington University Law School where Mr. Edelman earned his J.D., he received the ABA-Bloomberg BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Labor and Employment Law. Mr. Edelman has a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University’s ILR School.  In May 2024, Mr. Edelman was elected to the Board of Directors of Cornell’s ILR Alumni Association.

Highlights