What Happened To Former NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce?

After nearly a decade of service on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), most of which he served as chairman, Mark Gaston Pearce decided to walk away from another potential term on the board earlier this year. Pearce was appointed to the NLRB by President Obama in 2008 and was chairman during a period that saw many significant changes to American labor law ushered in by his board – including intense focus on non-union employer personnel policies and the infamous “ambush election rule.”

So what is Pearce doing now? According to a new press release from Georgetown University’s Law School, Pearce is going to lead the school’s newly launched Workers’ Rights Institute. The new institute will be working on policy initiatives to support workers’ rights as well as access to “labor law protections.”

Pearce provided the following statement: “From the gig economy, to the #MeToo movement, to recent Supreme Court decisions, U.S. workers are facing new challenges and pressures that make enforcing labor rights increasingly complicated … The Workers’ Rights Institute will help workers and their advocates understand their rights and how to effectively invoke them, while working to advance new policies that protect workers in a changing landscape.”

Even though he no longer sits on the board, it appears the former NLRB Chairman will continue to seek to make an impact on labor law through this new endeavor.