Ernie DeHaas – Attorney
Ernie DeHaas is the second of seven children born to Dr. Ernest P. DeHaas, II and Ladonna M. DeHaas. He and his wife, Kathleen, a pharmacist, have one child, Abby, who is an academic coordinator for the men’s and women’s track and field, volleyball, and tennis teams at Charleston Southern University.
A Carmichaels native whose family’s roots in Fayette County go back more than three generations, Ernie earned his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College and his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh and has spent his entire career practicing law in Fayette County. He completed an intensive course for trial lawyers given by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and has experience in many areas of law, including a wide variety of accident and other civil cases; zoning and real estate matters; wills and estates; contracts; school law; municipal law; and labor relations and employment law. Ernie has represented school districts, municipal authorities, industrial development authorities, townships and boroughs in Fayette and Greene Counties. In addition to being admitted to practice in all Pennsylvania courts, he is also admitted to practice before, and has handled cases in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Ernie is a member of the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Fayette County Bar Association. He has served as a director and president of the Fayette County Bar Association. Ernie served for six years in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and received an honorable discharge.
Active in the local community, Ernie has held a variety of leadership roles with the Fayette Chamber of Business and Industry, Uniontown Rotary Club, Fayette County Development Council, Greater Uniontown Industrial Fund, and Fayette Industrial Fund (all predecessors of Fay-Penn Economic Development Council), Uniontown Area YMCA, and Uniontown Downtown Business District Authority. In addition, he served for more than 15 years as leader of the Explorer Scouting Post sponsored by the Fayette County Bar Association, coached elementary school girls’ basketball, and serves as lector at his church, St. John the Evangelist in Uniontown.