On April 9, 2013, President Obama announced his intent to nominate three additional persons to serve as Members of the National Labor Relations Board. If confirmed, this would bring the number of Board Members to five, including two recess appointments.

The three persons to be nominnated are: Current Board Chairman Mark GastonPearce, Harry I. Johnson, III, and Philip A. Miscimarra.

Pearce has served as NLRB Chairman since August 2011, and has served as a Member of the Board since March 2010. His current term expires in August, 2013. He is currently the only Member who has been confirmed by the Senate.

Harry I. Johnson, III is a partner with the law firm of Arent Fox LLP, a position he has held since 2010.  He is based in Los Angeles, California. Previously, Johnson worked at the Jones Day law firm as partner from 2006 to 2010, and as an associate from 1994 to 2005. Johnson received a B. A. from Johns Hopkins University, an M.A.L.D. from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He has regularly represented employers in labor and employment matters.

Philip A. Miscimarra is partner with the law firm of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, a position he has held since 2005.  He is based in Chicago, Illinois. Also, since 1997, Miscimarra has been a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Miscimarra also practiced law at Seyfarth Shaw LLP from 1987 to 2005.  Miscimarra received a B.A. from Duquesne University, an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has represented management in labor and employment matters.

Nominations for the five-member Board were previously submitted by the President and are still pending for recess-appointees Richard F. Griffin, Jr. and Sharon Block.  The recess appointment are under attack in many cases now pending in the federal courts.  In one of those cases, Noel Canning v. NLRB, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the appointments were invalid.  The NLRB is seeking review of that decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.