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Congress confirmed President Trump's nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and to its General Counsel (GC) position on December 18, 2025.
The NLRB is headed by a five-member panel (the Board) that is situated in Washington, D.C. Each member of the Board is appointed by the president, with consent of the Senate, and serves a five-year staggered term. The Board members interpret the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and establish precedent by reviewing decisions made by administrative law judges (in unfair labor practice cases) and by regional directors (in representation cases). The Board requires a five-member quorum in order to operate and issue decisions. It has lacked quorum for much of the year due to vacancies and President Trump's termination of then-member Gwynne Wilcox. Before last week's confirmation, the sole Board member was Democrat-appointee David Prouty.
The NLRB also has a GC who acts as the prosecutorial arm of the NLRB. The GC issues guidance, identifies precedent that he or she would like to see overturned, and can tee up issues for the Board to change precedent by selecting cases to prosecute. Since February 3, 2025, William B. Cowen has been in the role of Acting General Counsel and has rolled back many of the largely pro-labor guidance memorandums issued by his predecessor. The rescinded memorandums addressed issues pertaining to student‑athletes, "make‑whole" remedies, electronic monitoring, noncompete agreements, and "stay‑or‑pay" provisions, among other topics.
On March 24, 2025, President Trump nominated Crystal Carey as GC. Carey previously served as a partner at a large management-side law firm and, prior to that, as a staff attorney at the NLRB. On July 17, 2025, President Trump nominated Scott Mayer and James Murphy to serve as members of the Board. Mayer previously held in-house labor roles at several large companies, while Murphy was a career NLRB attorney for nearly five decades.
Now that the nominees have been confirmed, the Board has, once again, regained a three-member quorum and can begin issuing new decisions. Employers should anticipate more management‑friendly decisions in close cases but should not expect the Board to immediately undo the Biden era's pro-union precedent. The Board has a longstanding practice of waiting to overturn prior decisions with a three-member majority, and it currently has only two members appointed by a Republican president. Accordingly, employers should continue to exercise caution and speak to experienced counsel when navigating this complicated and evolving area of law.
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