Joseph Wardenski

FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL ATTORNEY

Joseph Wardenski (he/him) founded Wardenski P.C. in 2021 and is the firm’s principal attorney. Joe is an accomplished civil rights lawyer with extensive experience litigating complex and groundbreaking civil rights cases across the country.

At Wardenski P.C., Joe represents individuals and organizations challenging discrimination in education, health care, housing, and voting. He also consults with nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and other entities on civil rights legal strategy and compliance with federal civil rights protections.

Joe has devoted his career to challenging discrimination that undermines individuals’ ability to participate in our democratic society. He is committed to protecting students from discrimination and harassment at school; promoting healthy, integrated communities and schools through enforcement of the nation’s fair housing, education, and health care rights laws; and defending the fundamental right to vote. Before founding the firm, Joe litigated a broad range of civil rights cases at the New York State Office of the Attorney General; Relman Colfax PLLC, a prominent civil rights firm based in Washington, DC; and the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Joe is a recognized leader in advocating for LGBTQ+ equality. He was the lead counsel in two major transgender rights cases — Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District, a landmark Seventh Circuit case establishing that public school policies that discriminate against transgender students violate Title IX and the Constitution, and Flack v. Wisconsin Department of Health Services, a class action case resulting in a federal court order invalidating Wisconsin Medicaid’s coverage exclusion for gender-affirming health treatments for transgender beneficiaries. At DOJ, he was a key member of the case team that resolved the first federal Title IX investigation of discrimination against a transgender student, reaching an agreement with a California public school district that the New York Times editorial board called “required reading for school officials at all levels nationally.” During his DOJ tenure, Joe also co-chaired the Civil Rights Division’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Working Group.

Throughout his career, Joe has proudly co-counseled on cases with civil rights organizations across the country, including Advancement Project, Demos, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Health Law Program, Native American Rights Fund, Public Justice, Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and Transgender Law Center.

Headshot of Joseph Wardenski

Representative Cases

  • Shelby v. Huntsville City Board of Education (N.D. Ala.)

    Joe represented the parents of Nigel Shelby, a ninth-grader who died by suicide after experiencing anti-gay harassment and racial discrimination at school, in this civil rights lawsuit against the Huntsville, Alabama school board and a school administrator. Joe negotiated a settlement requiring the board to adopt important protections for LGBTQ+ students, in addition to a significant monetary award to Nigel’s parents.

  • Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Barnett (D.S.D.)

    Joe represented two South Dakota tribes and other plaintiffs in this voting rights case. Following a 2022 federal court decision granting summary judgment to plaintiffs, holding that South Dakota violated the National Voter Registration Act by failing to provide mandatory voter registration services at driver’s licensing and public assistance offices, the parties reached a comprehensive settlement reforming the state’s voter registration practices.

  • Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District (7th Cir.)

    In a transgender high school student’s challenge to school policy barring him from boys’ restrooms, the Seventh Circuit issued a landmark opinion holding that discrimination against transgender students violates Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment. Joe argued the case at the district court and on appeal. (Handled at previous employer.)

  • Flack v. Wisconsin Department of Health Services (W.D. Wis.)

    Joe served as lead class counsel in transgender Medicaid beneficiaries’ challenge to Wisconsin’s categorical coverage exclusion for gender-affirming care. The court struck down the exclusion as violating the Medicaid Act, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, and the Fourteenth Amendment. (Handled at previous employer.)

  • New York v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (S.D.N.Y.)

    At the New York Attorney General’s Office, Joe represented a 23-state coalition in this Administrative Procedure Act challenge to a Trump Administration regulation rolling back civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ people, language minorities, and other groups in federally-funded health programs and activities. (Handled at previous employer.)

  • Cowan v. Bolivar County Board of Education (N.D. Miss.)

    At the U.S. Department of Justice, Joe led the case team in this enforcement action against a Mississippi school district that failed to desegregate its schools despite multiple court orders dating back to 1969. In 2016 — more than 50 years after the case was filed — the court adopted the United States’ proposed desegregation plan. (Handled at previous employer.)