LABOR UNION ADVOCACY

The firm has long represented labor organizations in all aspects of their political and social engagement.  We provide the advice and services that are described here about raising and spending political funds, influencing national, state and local elections, lobbying federal and state legislatures and executive branches, and undertaking public advocacy, all to provide voice and power to workers in every occupation and field. 

But these activities are also affected by legal requirements unique to unions that set them apart from other nonprofits, as well as from the business community that is often the labor movement’s adversary in the workplace and the public sphere.  Federal law closely regulates internal and inter-union governance, public reporting and disclosure, governmental employees’ political activity, and union financial dealings with employers – and states routinely enact laws that promote or curtail union and worker prerogatives.  The firm includes lawyers with deep expertise and experience with these laws and how union compliance with them meshes with their participation in elections and governmental policy.

The firm also represents nontraditional worker rights and advocacy organizations that often find themselves at novel intersections of nonprofit and labor law, and whose innovative strategies incur opposition from employers and entail particularly careful legal navigation. 

Our lawyers have:

• Won a landmark federal appellate decision about First Amendment protections for confidential political information amassed in Federal Election Commission investigations, AFL-CIO v. Federal Election Commission.
• Advised national, regional and local labor organizations about the unique interplay of internal union, labor-management, campaign finance and lobbying law in political and advocacy campaigns.
• Made presentations and presented papers on campaign finance, lobbying and tax law matters at conferences of union-side labor lawyers and labor organizations.