David E. Leach III, named Regional Director in Region 22 (Newark)

National Labor Relations Board Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and General Counsel Richard F. Griffin, Jr. announced the appointment of career attorney David E. Leach III as Regional Director of the Agency’s Regional Office in Newark, New Jersey (Region 22).  Mr. Leach succeeds J. Michael Lightner, who recently retired.  In his new position, Mr. Leach will be responsible for enforcement of the nation’s primary labor law covering private sector employees in northern and central New Jersey.
Mr. Leach is a graduate of Cathedral College, Douglaston, New York, where he majored in History. Following graduation from Brooklyn Law School, he joined the NLRB in 1976 as a Field Attorney in the New York Regional Office and has worked there continuously since that time. In 1984, he was promoted to Supervisory Attorney.  In 1988, Mr. Leach was appointed as a Deputy Regional Attorney and in 2012 he was promoted to his most recent position of Regional Attorney.  Since 1985, Mr. Leach has been a Senior Lecturer at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and since 2001 he has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School.
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency vested with the power to safeguard employees’ rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. The Agency also acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private sector employers.