Welcome to this special edition of We get work®. Over 500 representatives from 260 companies gathered together to share valuable insights and best practices on workplace law issues impacting their business today. Here's your personal invitation to get those insights delivered directly to you live from Workplace Horizons 2025 in New York City, Jackson Lewis's annual Labor and Employment Law Conference.
Transcript
INTRO
You're listening to a special edition of We get work®, recorded live from Workplace Horizons 2025 in New York City, Jackson Lewis's annual Labor and Employment Law Conference. Over 500 representatives from 260 companies gathered together to share valuable insights and best practices on workplace law issues impacting their business today. Here's your personal invitation to get the insights from the conference delivered directly to you. We'll see you in 2026.
CONTENT
Alitia Faccone
Senior Director of Business Development
Welcome to We get work Live from Workplace Horizons 2025. In the podcast studio with us this afternoon are Laura Pierson-Scheinberg, principal in Jackson Lewis's San Francisco office, and Dan Schudroff, principal in Jackson Lewis's New York City office, both top thought leaders in the labor law space. Thanks for joining us.
Dan, so if you could tell us a little bit about your practice, which I just mentioned happened to include labor law and what you're hearing from clients these days.
Daniel Schudroff
Principal, New York City
Thank you, Alitia. I focus primarily on traditional labor law with both unionized and non-unionized clients, but I assist clients on a wide range of issues, including advice and counsel from state and federal standpoints, employment litigation both in federal and state courts as well as administrative agencies and anything that falls in between. I do a lot of work with employers within New York City and New York State, but also around the country as well. Multi-state employers look to us as a firm, and we have a great team to provide guidance.
Faccone
Laura, you are the co-leader of our Labor and Preventative Practice Groups as well as our Retail Group, so a lot of issues and a lot of employers. Tell us a little bit about your practice and the issues that you're seeing in your space.
Laura Pierson-Scheinberg
Principal, San Francisco
I always go by Laura, the labor lawyer; it's easy to remember. I truly do all issues labor. I spend a lot of my time on labor strategy, both in the union and non-union space. We really deal with the entire life cycle of the union process. I deal with clients across the country; I actually have a presence also in Baltimore. I have that bi-coastal experience, and really, especially now, with the change in the administration and the difference in cooling off. It's not cooling off in California at all, but I've heard in the East, the Southeast in particular, the immunization issues have cooled off a bit. We're certainly not experiencing that in Cali for sure.
Faccone
In fact, the title of your presentation this afternoon was all about worker activism and how to prepare for the expected surge.
Dan, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you covered in the presentation, and what issues people can still expect?
Schudroff
Laura and I were fortunate to be joined by the Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, Marvin Kaplan, who spoke about issues going on at the National Labor Relations Board, with respect to issues involving protected conservative activity, workplace rules and union organizing. As a panel, we were able to explain to our audience all the things that could be happening in the next few months or even year at the National Labor Relations Board.
Pierson-Scheinberg
It's a really weird time because there's no quorum at the National Labor Relations Board. Everything in Washington is frozen, but in the regions, we are seeing cases being processed. In fact, where cases have been dormant, there is some movement. We're seeing more settlements because of some relaxed approach on what they're willing to accept on the Board. They were backing off some of the apology letter and other extra damages that they don't typically seek. Now, we're seeing a loosening of that. We are seeing some activity in the regions.
As Chairman Kaplan talked about, without a quorum, they're left with not much to do. He's been spending his time on one of his favorite things to do, which is drafting opinions. He's been spending his time drafting those potential opinions on those cases that swing back for the team that might come in because his appointment ends in August.
Faccone
We talked a lot here in the podcast studio with other speakers about how much things have changed and how much uncertainty there is. Apparently, that's also true in the labor space. What can we tell our clients? What can we tell our listeners? What are some of the key takeaways that you might have discussed or that Chairman Kaplan might have provided in his time as guest speaker on your panel?
Schudroff
What Laura said is absolutely right. Right now, without the quorum in place, there's not a lot of change to be expected immediately. That being said, clients can read the tea leaves from past cases that were issued during the first Trump administration to see where the law might go. A lot of these issues are still on hold right now.
It all comes down to risk tolerance from an employer's perspective as to whether or not that particular employer wants to take that the risk based on the current law as it stands – whether or not an allegation filed in an unfair labor practice charge could come before an administrative law judge before the law changes potentially back to a favorable employer stance. That's an open question that none of us can really answer. So, it really comes down to a risk tolerance and how much employers are willing to take on from a gamble standpoint as to whether or not their case would be decided before the law might shift back.
Faccone
It's a very tenuous position for our clients and something difficult that you have to help them get through as we move forward.
Pierson-Scheinberg
We're really looking at whether you want to go the patience route – do we want to wait until the pendulum swings, and how long? As Dan talked about, it's about this risk tolerance, but also the severity of the issue. What is important? What are all the outcomes, pros and cons of compliance or predicting and reading those tea leaves as to where you hope it's going? Then, maybe, you're that case.
Faccone
Well, I guess unless you get an advanced copy of one of those drafts of Chairman Kaplan's opinions, we all have to play the waiting game a little bit, I guess.
Laura, Dan, thank you so much for participating here at Workplace Horizons and being in the podcast studio this afternoon. Enjoy the rest of the conference.
OUTRO
Thank you for joining us on We get work®. Please tune into our next program where we will continue to tell you not only what's legal, but what is effective. We get work® is available to stream and subscribe to on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. For more information on today's topic, our presenters and other Jackson Lewis resources, visit jacksonlewis.com.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
