Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Sam Gedge is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. He joined IJ in June 2015 and litigates cases to promote economic liberty, protect political speech, and secure individuals’ rights to private property.
In 2017, Sam was named IJ’s second Elfie Gallun Fellow for Freedom and the Constitution. The fellowship comes with an emphasis on publishing written materials and speaking to students and others about the vital role the U.S. Constitution plays in protecting our most precious freedoms.
In his time at IJ, Sam has launched cases battling civil forfeiture and overzealous licensing boards, which generated widespread coverage and conversation in media outlets from Wired and The Atlantic to London’s Daily Mail.
Before joining IJ, Sam was an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP, in Washington, D.C., where he focused on litigation and election law. He is a former law clerk to Judge Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Sam received his law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2010.
Attorney, Institute for Justice
John Wrench is a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Institute for Justice.
John grew up outside of Ithaca, New York, and received his law degree from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 2019. During law school, he served as editor in chief of the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law and was a member of the Federalist Society. John interned in his law school’s First Amendment Litigation Clinic and was a judicial extern to the Honorable Paul E. Davison in the Southern District of New York. John graduated from Pace University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religious Studies.
Of Counsel, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.
Homer Deakins began his professional career with Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston and since that time has specialized in labor relations and employment law. He joined the predecessor firm to Ogletree Deakins and became a named partner in that firm. Mr. Deakins was Managing Shareholder of Ogletree Deakins from 1985-2000.
He has extensive experience in all aspects of labor relations law and has handled some of the largest and most highly publicized union elections in the United States on behalf of employers. This includes representing management in two major union elections in foreign-owned automobile assembly plants in the United States, where the company won those elections by large margins. He also has created and participated in highly sophisticated labor relations training programs for management personnel and has a wealth of experience in guiding employers through challenging labor-related issues. He also has extensive experience in representing management in negotiating collective bargaining agreements. For example, he represented the City and County of Honolulu in negotiating a project labor agreement with the Building Trades Unions for the $5 billion rail project in Honolulu. He has also negotiated numerous other agreements under the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act.
Mr. Deakins also has extensive and varied experience in employment litigation, including jury trials in state and federal courts involving equal employment opportunity and employment-at-will cases. He has been involved in the trials of several large class action cases and has extensive appellate experience. Mr. Deakins has participated as the lead member of the defense team in ABA-sponsored mock trials of employment cases throughout the United States.
Deputy General Counsel, Local 32 BJ, Service Employees International Union
Brent Garren is a Deputy General Counsel of SEIU Local 32 BJ, the 145,000 member property services local in New York and the eastern seaboard. He worked for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, then UNITE, UNITE HERE and Workers United prior to Local 32 BJ, including serving as General Counsel for UNITE HERE and later Workers United.
Mr. Garren’s career has focused on the National Labor Relations Act. He is an Editor-In-Chief of How to Take a Case Before the NLRB, the leading text on NLRB procedure. He is a member of and past union co-chair of the ABA’s subcommittee on Practice and Procedure under the NLRA, part of the Labor and Employment Law Section. He has spoken about and written on the NLRA, including on remedies, voluntary recognition and NLRB jurisdiction.
He has been involved in international labor solidarity activities, including representing U.S. labor to the International Labor Organization, dealing with protection of home workers and protection of contracted labor.
He was graduated by Wayne State School of Law, summa cum laude.
Reed Larson Professor of Labor Law, Ave Maria School of Law and, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
John Raudabaugh is a labor lawyer and former Member of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board. He was a partner in law firms representing management concerning domestic and international labor law matters. Currently, he represents employees seeking relief from union and/or employer unfair labor practices. Mr. Raudabaugh has presented testimony to both Senate and House Committees regarding labor law reform. Professor Raudabaugh teaches Labor Law and a Labor Law Practicum at the Ave Maria School of Law. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce and New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations with B.S. and M.S. degrees in labor economics and a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia Law School of Law.
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Maury Baskin focuses his Washington, DC-based practice on national labor policy, challenging excessive government regulation on behalf of small and large businesses, while advising employers in compliance issues. He has extensive experience in dealing with labor relations and union pressure tactics, employment discrimination and wage and hour law. He has represented a variety of industry sectors, advising clients involved in construction, government contracting, higher education, telecommunications, hospitality, security, and nonprofits.
Mr. Baskin has served as lead counsel at all levels of the federal and state courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has recently led successful challenges against nationwide federal labor regulations on behalf of multi-industry coalitions, including the 2016 “white collar” overtime rule and the so-called “blacklisting” rule. He has also succeeded in the courts in numerous cases involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Labor (DOL). Mr. Baskin is the Chair of Littler's Construction Industry Group and has long represented the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) national trade association and many of its construction industry members. On their behalf, he has been one of the leading advocates against government-mandated project labor agreements, prevailing wage expansion, and union corporate campaigns.
Associate General Counsel, Service Employees International Union
Walter Kamiat is currently Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a position he has held since 2004. He is SEIU’s principal counsel in the home care area, where the SEIU represents over one half million workers. He also is active in the SEIU’s appellate litigation program, including its amicus practice before the Supreme Court and the federal appellate courts. Mr. Kamiat assisted in preparing DC Circuit and Fourth Circuit amicus briefs defending the NLRB Posting Rule.
In 2008, Mr. Kamiat served on the Obama Administration’s Labor Department Transition Team, performing the agency review of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Commission.
Prior to working at the SEIU, Mr. Kamiat had almost 30 years’ experience in a wide variety of positions involving labor law and labor-relations institutions. These included serving as counsel to the AFL-CIO Investment Program, a multi-billion dollar union-sponsored pension investment program investing in urban housing and economic development projects (1997-2004), as Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, teaching and writing in labor and employment law (1994-1997), as Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO (1988-1994), principally focusing on Supreme Court and appellate litigation, and as an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser in Washington, DC (1986-1988), principally representing union, employees, and labor sponsored benefit funds.
Mr. Kamiat is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review. He was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1984-1985) and to DC Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright (1983-1984).
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Mr. Fortney is a co-founder of Fortney & Scott, LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm counseling and advising clients on the full spectrum of work-place related matters, including employment discrimination and labor matters, compliance programs, government contracting, international dispute resolution and counseling matters, and developing strategies for avoiding or responding to workplace-related crises.
Mr. Fortney has a broad-based practice representing and counseling employers and executives in employment and labor matters, including equal employment opportunity requirements, wage and hour matters, federal contractor's affirmative action and non-discrimination obligations, collective bargaining, and workplace health and safety. He brings experience from the public and private sectors in advising clients on these issues, and he frequently represents clients before federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Department of Labor's agencies, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board.
Mr. Fortney has been widely recognized for his professional accomplishments, including being named one of the leading employment lawyers in Washington, D.C. by the CHAMBERS USAsurvey of America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in all years from 2005 through 2015. He was selected for inclusion in the 2008 through present editions of The Best Lawyers in America, Washington D.C.’s, Washington D.C.’s Best Lawyers, and Super Lawyers. Mr. Fortney was also awarded an AV rating (the highest level) by Martindale-Hubbell.
Before co-founding the firm, Mr. Fortney previously served as the chief legal officer of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. during the term of President George H.W. Bush. As Acting Solicitor of Labor, he was responsible for enforcing over 140 laws regulating the nation's workplaces and managing an agency with 800 attorneys and support staff. He advised Secretaries of Labor Elizabeth Dole and Lynn Martin and the Department of Labor agencies on a broad range of legal, policy, legislative, regulatory and enforcement issues.
Mr. Fortney has testified before the U.S. Congress on several occasions and a state legislative committee on wage and hour matters.
Mr. Fortney is a frequent lecturer and writer on employment-related topics, including appearances on CNN, CBS and Fox News. Mr. Fortney is the co-editor of the Federal Employment Law Insider monthly newsletter, Chapter Editor of The Family and Medical Leave Act (2006) published by BNA Books, co-author of the Military Leave Compliance Kit (2001), published by M. Lee Smith Publishers, and lead author of the Guide to Employee Leave(1997), published by Warren, Gorham & Lamont.
Deputy General Counsel, Local 32 BJ, Service Employees International Union
Brent Garren is a Deputy General Counsel of SEIU Local 32 BJ, the 145,000 member property services local in New York and the eastern seaboard. He worked for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, then UNITE, UNITE HERE and Workers United prior to Local 32 BJ, including serving as General Counsel for UNITE HERE and later Workers United.
Mr. Garren’s career has focused on the National Labor Relations Act. He is an Editor-In-Chief of How to Take a Case Before the NLRB, the leading text on NLRB procedure. He is a member of and past union co-chair of the ABA’s subcommittee on Practice and Procedure under the NLRA, part of the Labor and Employment Law Section. He has spoken about and written on the NLRA, including on remedies, voluntary recognition and NLRB jurisdiction.
He has been involved in international labor solidarity activities, including representing U.S. labor to the International Labor Organization, dealing with protection of home workers and protection of contracted labor.
He was graduated by Wayne State School of Law, summa cum laude.
Of Counsel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
John focuses his practice on labor and employment litigation and counseling employers on mergers, acquisitions and consolidations, downsizing, plant relocations, union representation elections, labor negotiations, strikes and lockouts, NLRB unfair labor practices, arbitration, wage and hour, wrongful discharge and equal employment. John, a former NLRB General Counsel and Labor Department official, was selected as a global leader in the field of employment & labor law in The International Who's Who of Labor and Employment Lawyers by Law Business Research, The Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers.
John earned his B.A. from Brown University and both his J.D. and LL.M. from Georgetown.
Of Counsel, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.
Homer Deakins began his professional career with Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston and since that time has specialized in labor relations and employment law. He joined the predecessor firm to Ogletree Deakins and became a named partner in that firm. Mr. Deakins was Managing Shareholder of Ogletree Deakins from 1985-2000.
He has extensive experience in all aspects of labor relations law and has handled some of the largest and most highly publicized union elections in the United States on behalf of employers. This includes representing management in two major union elections in foreign-owned automobile assembly plants in the United States, where the company won those elections by large margins. He also has created and participated in highly sophisticated labor relations training programs for management personnel and has a wealth of experience in guiding employers through challenging labor-related issues. He also has extensive experience in representing management in negotiating collective bargaining agreements. For example, he represented the City and County of Honolulu in negotiating a project labor agreement with the Building Trades Unions for the $5 billion rail project in Honolulu. He has also negotiated numerous other agreements under the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act.
Mr. Deakins also has extensive and varied experience in employment litigation, including jury trials in state and federal courts involving equal employment opportunity and employment-at-will cases. He has been involved in the trials of several large class action cases and has extensive appellate experience. Mr. Deakins has participated as the lead member of the defense team in ABA-sponsored mock trials of employment cases throughout the United States.
Deputy General Counsel, Local 32 BJ, Service Employees International Union
Brent Garren is a Deputy General Counsel of SEIU Local 32 BJ, the 145,000 member property services local in New York and the eastern seaboard. He worked for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, then UNITE, UNITE HERE and Workers United prior to Local 32 BJ, including serving as General Counsel for UNITE HERE and later Workers United.
Mr. Garren’s career has focused on the National Labor Relations Act. He is an Editor-In-Chief of How to Take a Case Before the NLRB, the leading text on NLRB procedure. He is a member of and past union co-chair of the ABA’s subcommittee on Practice and Procedure under the NLRA, part of the Labor and Employment Law Section. He has spoken about and written on the NLRA, including on remedies, voluntary recognition and NLRB jurisdiction.
He has been involved in international labor solidarity activities, including representing U.S. labor to the International Labor Organization, dealing with protection of home workers and protection of contracted labor.
He was graduated by Wayne State School of Law, summa cum laude.
Reed Larson Professor of Labor Law, Ave Maria School of Law and, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
John Raudabaugh is a labor lawyer and former Member of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board. He was a partner in law firms representing management concerning domestic and international labor law matters. Currently, he represents employees seeking relief from union and/or employer unfair labor practices. Mr. Raudabaugh has presented testimony to both Senate and House Committees regarding labor law reform. Professor Raudabaugh teaches Labor Law and a Labor Law Practicum at the Ave Maria School of Law. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce and New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations with B.S. and M.S. degrees in labor economics and a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia Law School of Law.
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Maury Baskin focuses his Washington, DC-based practice on national labor policy, challenging excessive government regulation on behalf of small and large businesses, while advising employers in compliance issues. He has extensive experience in dealing with labor relations and union pressure tactics, employment discrimination and wage and hour law. He has represented a variety of industry sectors, advising clients involved in construction, government contracting, higher education, telecommunications, hospitality, security, and nonprofits.
Mr. Baskin has served as lead counsel at all levels of the federal and state courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has recently led successful challenges against nationwide federal labor regulations on behalf of multi-industry coalitions, including the 2016 “white collar” overtime rule and the so-called “blacklisting” rule. He has also succeeded in the courts in numerous cases involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Labor (DOL). Mr. Baskin is the Chair of Littler's Construction Industry Group and has long represented the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) national trade association and many of its construction industry members. On their behalf, he has been one of the leading advocates against government-mandated project labor agreements, prevailing wage expansion, and union corporate campaigns.
Associate General Counsel, Service Employees International Union
Walter Kamiat is currently Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a position he has held since 2004. He is SEIU’s principal counsel in the home care area, where the SEIU represents over one half million workers. He also is active in the SEIU’s appellate litigation program, including its amicus practice before the Supreme Court and the federal appellate courts. Mr. Kamiat assisted in preparing DC Circuit and Fourth Circuit amicus briefs defending the NLRB Posting Rule.
In 2008, Mr. Kamiat served on the Obama Administration’s Labor Department Transition Team, performing the agency review of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Commission.
Prior to working at the SEIU, Mr. Kamiat had almost 30 years’ experience in a wide variety of positions involving labor law and labor-relations institutions. These included serving as counsel to the AFL-CIO Investment Program, a multi-billion dollar union-sponsored pension investment program investing in urban housing and economic development projects (1997-2004), as Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, teaching and writing in labor and employment law (1994-1997), as Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO (1988-1994), principally focusing on Supreme Court and appellate litigation, and as an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser in Washington, DC (1986-1988), principally representing union, employees, and labor sponsored benefit funds.
Mr. Kamiat is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review. He was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1984-1985) and to DC Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright (1983-1984).
Open Questions in Lieu v. Federal Election Commission: Due Process, Adverseness, & Article III Standing
Sam Gedge, John Wrench
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
The Aftermath of Janus: Initial Union Reaction and the Status of the New Cases So Far
Western Wisconsin Lawyers Chapter
Hudson, WITopics
Courts of Appeals Slap Down NLRB Member Mark Gaston Pearce Again (and Again) in Cases Involving Workers’ Free Choice
The four cases outlined below have (at least) two things in common. Can you guess...
Topics
Does the NLRB’s Inspector General Have a Double Standard for When Board Members Must Recuse?
Traditionally under the National Labor Relations Act, a company was considered to be a joint...
The Supreme Court Need Not “Ignore Pleading Rules” to Decide the Constitutionality of Forced Union Dues Imposed on Public Employees
The petition for certiorari filed in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees,...
The Future of Labor Law under the New Administration
TeleforumThe New NLRB Representation Case Rule - Podcast
Homer L. Deakins, Brent Garren, John N. Raudabaugh
On December 15, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board published a final rule amending its...
The New NLRB Representation Case Rule
TeleforumNLRB Posting Regulations - Podcast
Maury Baskin, Walter Kamiat, Dean Reuter
On August 30, 2011, with the then-one Republican member dissenting, the National Labor Relations Board...
NLRB Posting Regulations