NLRB names three Administrative Law Judges

The National Labor Relations Board today announced the appointment of three administrative law judges to fill vacancies caused by recent retirements and to bring its number of judges to 40 nationwide.  The three new judges are sitting administrative law judges who are transferring to the Board from other Federal agencies.  They are: Judges Lauren Esposito, Robert Ringler, and Gerald Etchingham. 
With offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco and Atlanta, the NLRB Division of Judges is responsible for docketing unfair labor practice cases brought by the Board’s General Counsel on charges filed by unions, employers and individual employees.  The Division disposes of those cases by settlement or by conducting trials and issuing initial decisions, which may then be appealed to the five-member Board and thereafter to an appropriate United States Court of Appeals. 
Judge Esposito comes from the Social Security Administration, where she had been an administrative law judge since October 2009.  Before her appointment as a Social Security judge, she spent 10 years as a field attorney with Region 2 of the NLRB.  She also spent seven years in the private practice of labor and employment law.  Judge Esposito received her B.A. degree from Swarthmore College and her J.D. degree from Brooklyn Law School.  She will take her assignments from the New York office.              
Judge Ringler also comes from the Social Security Administration, where he had been an administrative law judge since May 2008.  Before his appointment as a Social Security judge, he served three years as an administrative judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board and six years as a field attorney in Region 3 of the NLRB.  He also spent 5 years in private practice with emphasis on labor and employment law.  Judge Ringler received his B.A. degree from the State University of New York in Buffalo, his J.D. degree from the Hofstra University School of Law, and his L.L.M. in labor and employment law from Georgetown University Law Center.  Judge Ringler will take his assignments from the Atlanta office. 
Judge Etchingham transfers to the Board from the United States Department of Labor, where he had been an administrative law judge for the past eight years.  In that capacity, he heard and decided and mediated cases under some eight different statutes enforced by the Labor Department.  Before that, he served as an administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration.  Before his appointment as a judge, he spent 15 years in private practice, specializing in general civil litigation, including cases before the Merit Systems Protection Board.  He obtained his B.S degree from Augustana College and his J.D. degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.  Judge Etchingham will take his assignments from the San Francisco office.  
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 and unions.