Longtime NLRB Hand Tapped to Lead Board in Backlog Clear Out (1)

James Murphy will lead the National Labor Relations Board as it continues digging out from the extensive backlog amassed during nearly a year of being unable to issue decisions.

The NLRB announced Murphy’s selection as chair Friday, 79 days after he and former Boeing Co. chief labor counsel Scott Mayer formally joined the board and restored its operating quorum. Member David Prouty, the NLRB’s sole Democrat, was the only sitting board member for 132 days.

“I wish to thank President Trump for putting his trust in me to serve as Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues Member Prouty and Member Mayer, and all NLRB employees to protect and advance the rights of American workers,” Murphy said in a statement.

Murphy said during his October nomination hearing that resolving the backlog—which he estimated at 500 cases at the time—was the deciding factor in why he came out of retirement.

The backlog, which reached 591 cases when he was sworn in, dropped to 482 as of March 4 thanks to the board’s focus on “low-hanging fruit,” he said at an American Bar Association conference earlier this month.

Murphy had worked at the NLRB for 47 years before retiring about five years ago, most recently serving as member Marvin Kaplan’s chief counsel.

Kaplan, NLRB chair during parts of the first and second Trump administrations, told Bloomberg Law that Murphy is an excellent choice to lead the board.

“Jim brings decades of board experience that gives the board an exceptional opportunity to act quickly,” said Kaplan, now an attorney at Jackson Lewis PC.

Murphy hit the ground running without needing to learn NLRB systems and processes, which should allow the board to deal with cases expeditiously, he said.

But as chair, Murphy is a “leader among equals” and can’t dictate to the other members which cases will advance first or what the docket will look like, Kaplan said.

Experience Digging Out

Although consensus among members will be key, Murphy can offer direct experience processing masses of stockpiled cases.

He worked with the NLRB when it had to handle significant case backlogs that stemmed from US Supreme Court rulings in 2010 and 2014 that invalidated slews of prior board decisions, said Mark Gaston Pearce, NLRB chair during the Obama administration.

“We had to muster up internal protocols in order to get things done and he was integral in that implementation,” Pearce said.

Murphy isn’t the only leader at the NLRB, as the agency effectively has two heads. The general counsel—a post occupied by former Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius LLP attorney Crystal Carey—oversees the regional offices and agency employees other than administrative law judges and board-side staff.

The chair manages the board and handles many of the responsibilities for running the agency, like setting the budget and approving the hiring of administrative law judges, and acts as the board’s representative to Congress, according to former NLRB chairs.

Murphy’s tenure as board chief is likely to be relatively short. His term on the board is set to expire in December 2027.

Although NLRB members’ terms technically last five years, they’re tied to the particular seat that they occupy rather than their confirmation or swearing-in dates.

Mayer’s term will lapse in December 2029, while Prouty’s term will end in August.