President Biden named Lauren McFerran as chairman of the National Labor Relations board. McFerran has served on the board since December 2014. Separately, Biden fired the NLRB’s general counsel, according to news reports.
In a statement, McFerran said “I look forward to this new chapter in the board’s work, redoubling our efforts to serve the act’s goals — ‘encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and … protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association.’”
Her term expires in December 2024.
Prior to serving on the NLRB, McFerran was chief labor counsel for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She also previously served the committee as deputy staff director under former Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
The NLRB also comprises John Ring, who previously served as chairman; Marvin Kaplan; and William Emanuel. One board member seat is vacant.
Last February, the NLRB had released a final rule covering joint employment status, reversing the 2015 Browning-Ferris ruling by the Obama-era NLRB.
Biden also fired NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb, a Trump appointee, after Robb refused a request to resign, Politico reported.
Board Member
Lauren McFerran served as a Member of the NLRB from December 17, 2014 until December 16, 2019. On July 29, 2020, the Senate confirmed her renomination as a Board Member for a term expiring on December 16, 2024.
On January 20, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden named Ms. McFerran Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.
Previous to her appointment to the NLRB, Ms. McFerran served as Chief Labor Counsel for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP Committee) and had also served the Committee as Deputy Staff Director under Senator Tom Harkin. She began on the HELP Committee as Senior Labor Counsel for Senator Ted Kennedy. Before her work in the United States Senate, Ms. McFerran was an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C. and served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Ms. McFerran received a B.A. from Rice University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.