The National Labor Relations Board is set to regain a quorum of three Members following the Senate’s confirmation of Board nominees Scott Mayer and James Murphy on December 18, 2025. Mr. Mayer is joining the Board from a large aviation manufacturing company, where he served as chief labor counsel. Mr. Murphy is a former Board lawyer. Both are set to join David Prouty, who has been the sole member on the Board since former Chairman Marvin Kaplan’s term expired this past August. With the confirmation of the two new Board members, the Board will now be comprised of a majority of Republican appointees, with Member Prouty being the sole Democrat on the Board.
The Board requires a three-member quorum to issue decisions in union representation and unfair labor practice cases. The Board has been without a three-member quorum , and thus unable to issue decisions, for nearly a full year, following former Member Gwynne Wilcox’s removal from her position in January 2025. The appointments of Mr. Mayer and Mr. Murphy will allow the Board, which oversees most private sector union-related matters in the U.S., to immediately resume issuing opinions. It is anticipated that this new Republican majority Board may look to clarify and ultimately unwind many of the Biden Administration-era Board decisions, including more controversial decisions such as Stericycle, which set an employee-friendly standard for reviewing employee handbook policies, and Cemex, which created a union-friendly procedure for union recognition without any election.
The Senate also confirmed Crystal Carey to serve as the Board’s General Counsel. As General Counsel, Ms. Carey, who was most recently a partner at a large management-side law firm, will serve as the Board’s chief prosecutor, and will be instrumental in setting the Board’s agenda moving forward. Unlike the NLRB’s prior General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, it is expected that Ms. Carey may look to move the Board in a more moderate and employer-friendly direction.
We expect and will track changes as the new Board begins issuing decisions. If you have any questions about these issues or the impact of the new Board, please reach out to any member of Squire Patton Boggs’ Labor and Employment practice group.