Joseph Cammarata

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Joseph Cammarata (born June 23, 1958) is an American civil trial attorney from Brooklyn, New York. He earned a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1980, a JD from St. John’s University School of Law in 1983, and an LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center in 1987. He is board-certified in Civil Trial Advocacy and Civil Pretrial Practice Advocacy and is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, and New York.

Cammarata is best known for high-profile cases against powerful figures. He led Paula Jones’ lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, Jones v. Clinton (1994), over sexual harassment. The case moved through appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, which allowed it to proceed, and Clinton later settled out of court. The case helped establish that a sitting president is not immune from civil lawsuits.

He also represented seven women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault in a defamation lawsuit filed in 2014. The suit was later amended to include additional plaintiffs and claims for false light and emotional distress; Cosby’s insurer, AIG, settled the case confidentially in 2019.

Earlier, in 1999, Cammarata represented developmentally disabled people in a lawsuit against the District of Columbia and its contractors for negligence and civil rights violations, and he testified before a D.C. City Council subcommittee about abuse uncovered during the case.

In 2018, he and co-counsel won a $14.25 million class-action settlement for women who were secretly recorded by Rabbi Bernard Freundel at the National Capital Mikvah in Washington, D.C.