Judge Eleanor Laws Named Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge

Today, the National Labor Relations Board announced the appointment of Judge Eleanor Laws as Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge in charge of its San Francisco Office of Judges, effective January 2024. In this position, Judge Laws will oversee the Office’s docketing, assignment, and trial of the General Counsel’s complaints of unfair practice violations arising out of the Agency’s Regional Offices on the West Coast and other areas of the West and Southwest. Judge Laws will be taking over this position from Associate Chief Judge Gerald Etchingham, who has decided to step down from administrative duties while continuing to hear and decide cases.

Judge Laws has been an NLRB judge since September of 2011. Previously, she served as an administrative law judge for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Social Security Administration. Earlier in her career, Judge Laws represented clients in a wide array of employment law matters, an area of the law about which she has written extensively, including co-authoring several textbooks in the field. Judge Laws received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and her law degree from the University of North Carolina.

“Judge Laws has distinguished herself as a thoughtful and impartial decision maker in her years at the Board. With her deep knowledge of both the agency and the Act, I am confident she will provide excellent leadership in her new role as Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge. We are extremely grateful for Judge Etchingham’s longtime service in this position, and look forward to his continued contributions to the Agency’s mission as well,” said Chairman Lauren McFerran.