成员的关注: 托马斯·伦茨

在进入私人执业之前，伦茨在洛杉矶的国家劳工关系委员会工作. 他在马奎特大学获得本科学位，在路易斯安那州立大学法律中心获得法学学位.

How did you get interested in labor law?

我在中西部一个以制造业为主的社区长大. 约翰迪尔, 毛毛虫, 和 other companies were focused in my community of Illinois, 和 these companies had labor issues.

My father worked in the family business. My gr和mother owned a bar, which my father took over 和 exp和ed into a liquor store, which is the first place I worked as a warehouseman. My mother was a union member. Many of the people that I knew, many of the customers of our family business, were affected by labor disputes or laws. 我从劳动法如何影响我们社区的人的角度来看待它, 和 when I went to law school, I better understood the business, 公民权利, 和 constitutional issues involved. 他们让我着迷.

你会说一口流利的西班牙语和一些希腊语、法语和葡萄牙语. How has your interest in language helped you in your career?

I had an early interest in languages. Spanish was not widely spoken where I grew up, 但是我妈妈在我上小学的时候就教会了我她所知道的. My gr和mother started teaching me Greek around the same time. 学习一门新语言就像破译密码，学习一种新的词汇视角, 即使在英语中. 我最终主修了西班牙语，甚至在马德里大学留学.

我从法学院毕业后，澳博app的就业市场非常紧张. 在国家劳动关系委员会(NLRB)面试工作时, I mentioned that I was fluent in Spanish. 事实证明，洛杉矶非常需要会说西班牙语的人. 最后，我收拾了我所有的东西，搬到了加州，甚至都没去过那里. I’ve been here ever since.

在国家劳资关系委员会，我调查和审理不公平劳动行为案件. 我的大部分个案工作都需要使用西班牙语，我在我的职位上做得很好. If I hadn’t learned Spanish, if I hadn’t gained fluency, 和 if I hadn’t marketed that, I may not have had the same career opportunities.

After you left the NLRB in 1992, 你开始了私人执业在过去的25年里一直在同一家律所工作. How has your firm 和 practice grown over the years?

1992年我加入这家公司时，公司有3个办公室，大约有25名澳博app. Now we have nine offices 和 170 lawyers. The firm began as a boutique labor 和 employment law firm. 该公司一半代表学区，另一半代表私营部门, mostly in the construction industry. We have grown into far more than that now. 我们代表各行各业的私营部门和一些公共实体. We are now largely a full-service firm. 我们从事诉讼、咨询、法律顾问、交易业务和商业纠纷. 对于一个学区来说, we can do most anything it needs, 从人事方面, 谈判, 交易, to issues involved in providing special education services.

我的领域主要是在工作场所问题上为雇主提供建议、培训和辩护. 我的大部分时间都花在与雇主和工会有关的问题上, such as collective bargaining, h和ling grievances 和 arbitration of labor disputes, 调查, 和诉讼. 我的客户范围从大型国际组织到小型家族企业. I have clients in 加州 和 literally coast to coast.

我为我的客户提供各种职场问题的培训. 在劳动环境中, 这包括与非工会雇主合作，当你的企业正在经历工会组织活动时，什么该做什么不该做. 有时候雇主会觉得如果他们的雇员与工会谈判是在背叛他们. 如果训练不当, 雇主甚至可能威胁他们的工人——如果你与工会交谈或签署工会卡, 我们会炒了你. Well, it’s illegal to make those statements. 和, 如果有人因为和工会代表谈话而受到纪律处分或解雇, the employer could end up looking at a discrimination claim. I want my clients to be in compliance with the rules, 所以我进行培训，以确保他们了解如何避免违反法律.

你预计特朗普政府会对劳资关系法规和执法做出任何改变吗?

Any time you have a change in administration, you can be sure there will be changes in rules, 规定, 政策, 和 how things are enforced. With the Trump administration, 我预测，用于扩大员工在工作场所权利的规则将以多种方式重新审查. 一个例子是, 在奥巴马政府执政期间，有很多活动挑战雇主在工作场所使用电子邮件或文明礼仪的规则的实施和执行. 我预计，新政府将希望重新定义允许员工发表言论的限度.

你对刚开始他们职业生涯的澳博app有什么建议?

When I entered labor law, 有人告诉我 it was a dead area. Union membership had gone down, 和, 有人告诉我, 这样就不需要传统的劳动法实践了. 我发现了什么, 然而, 是你保持专注，坚持做你想做的事吗, 你会在你感兴趣的法律领域找到机会. You can build the practice that you want.

此外，我建议年轻的澳博app在他们的交往中始终走正道. 你很可能会一次又一次地遇到同样的从业者. You want to be civil—do not burn bridges, but do your best to build relationships, even with opposing counsel. 促进礼貌和信誉是很重要的，通过这样做，你有助于提升这个职业.