Miscimarra named NLRB Chairman

Philip A. Miscimarra has been named chairman of the National Labor Relations Board by President Donald J. Trump. 

“It is a great honor to be named NLRB Chairman by the President,” Miscimarra said on April 24. “The Board has the important responsibility of applying the National Labor Relations Act in an even-handed manner that serves the interests of employees, employers and unions throughout the country. I remain committed to these efforts.”

Miscimarra had been previously designated acting chairman by President Trump on Jan. 23. He has served as a board member since August 2013 and his current term expires on Dec. 16, 2017.

The NLRB also consists of Board Member Mark Gaston Pearce (previously NLRB Chairman), whose term expires on August 27, 2018; and Board Member Lauren McFerran, whose term expires on Dec. 16, 2019. Two seats are currently vacant.

Before joining the Board, Chairman Miscimarra was a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School in the Wharton Center for Human Resources, and a labor and employment law partner with Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Chicago.

He previously worked as a labor and employment attorney with Seyfarth Shaw; Murphy Smith & Polk (now the Chicago office of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart); and Reed Smith Shaw & McClay (now Reed Smith).

Miscimarra received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School; a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School; and a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from Duquesne University.

In Compliance Week’s reporting on Miscimarra’s past appointment as acting chairman, labor experts said the move helped usher in a philosophical change at the board.

“The appointment is the first step in a process of returning the Board to balancing the rights of employees with the legitimate interests of employers as set forth in the National Labor Relations Act,” said Michael Lotito, co-chair of law firm Littler Mendelson’s Workplace Policy Institute “Over the past five years, the NLRB has reversed years of precedent, often over the dissent of new Chair Miscimarra.”