Honors Program: Board Offices, Washington, DC

The Honors Program attorneys will be assigned to the offices of individual Board Members, and they will also be assigned on a rotational basis to the Office of Representation Appeals, the Office of the Solicitor, and/or the Office of the Executive Secretary. The rotational assignments are subject exclusively to management discretion based on work needs. Although the attorney is expected to be employed as a permanent staff attorney at the conclusion of the two-year program, all attorneys are subject to a two-year probationary period. Thus, there is no guarantee of permanent employment upon completion of the program.

It is the responsibility of the attorneys assigned to a Board Member to assist the Board Member by reviewing the hearing record and the parties briefs on appeal in the cases to which they are assigned, researching and analyzing the issues, and presenting written recommendations as to their resolution directly to the Board Members. The issues are then deliberated in meetings either with the attorney's own Board Member, or with all of the Board Members who will be participating in the case. Ultimately the attorney drafts a decision for the Board Members for dissemination to the public reflecting the Board's disposition of the case.

Attorneys assigned to the Office of Representation Appeals present directly to the Board Members recommendations on whether to approve regional director decisions relating to recent or upcoming NLRB representation elections. These decisions raise issues involving such matters as the voting eligibility of classes of employees. Attorneys prepare legal memoranda analyzing the issues, and orally present their recommendations to the Board. The attorneys also draft decisions and orders for the Board Members.

Honors Program attorneys may also be assigned to the Office of the Solicitor. The Solicitor is the Board's chief legal officer and advises it on a broad range of questions of law and policy arising from its administration of the National Labor Relations Act. Attorneys handle assignments as varied as advising the Board on interlocutory-type appeals in ongoing unfair labor practice administrative hearings, and making recommendations to the Board on whether to seek or oppose certiorari before the United States Supreme Court with respect to the review of a Board decision by one of the U.S. federal circuit courts of appeals.