Morgan Lewis’s renowned US labor/management relations practice welcomes the return of John Ring as a partner resident in Washington, DC. Reuniting with another former Chairman and a former member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), John’s return strengthens Morgan Lewis’s long tradition as the trusted advisor to employers of all sizes on business-critical matters.
We are proud of John’s service to our government and are delighted to welcome him back. With his return, we have three former NLRB members in our partnership, two of whom led that federal agency as Chairman, giving our clients unparalleled insight and guidance in this most important area,” said Firm Chair Jami McKeon. John’s return also reflects our continuing success in building a deep bench of former Washington, DC, federal government appointees across multiple practice areas whose experience and knowledge in how our federal government prioritizes policy and regulations brings significant value to our clients.
At Morgan Lewis, John will advise employers on a wide range of labor and employment issues, focusing on traditional labor matters. He will help clients with labor-relations strategy, collective bargaining, workforce restructuring, and labor-management related counseling and litigation. Additionally, John’s experience with congressional oversight as head of a federal agency provides unique perspectives for client matters involving Capitol Hill and other government entities.
John was with Morgan Lewis for nearly 30 years before being nominated to the NLRB in 2018, where he served as Board Chairman until January 2021 and then as a Board Member until December 2022. While Chairman, John is credited with restoring balance to the enforcement of the nation’s labor laws, including on important issues to employers such as the “joint employer” doctrine, the independent contractor standard, and union elections procedures. He commenced an unprecedented rule-making initiative to provide greater clarity and predictability in NLRB enforcement and oversaw a historic review of the agency’s ethics program. He also led efforts to streamline the NLRB’s case-handling procedures, reducing backlog to a historic low.
John has impeccable credentials, and his return creates a Morgan Lewis team that has even deeper NLRB experience spanning many different administrations that will produce greater benefits for our clients, said Philip Miscimarra, who also formerly served as NLRB Chairman and now leads Morgan Lewis’s NLRB special appeals practice and co-leads its workforce change practice. “Employers are dealing with important workplace issues that the NLRB is likely to address very differently in the next two years. John’s return adds to our ability to provide strategic insights to top-level executives in addition to handling complex bargaining, dealing with other labor-management issues, and addressing critical labor law issues before the NLRB and the courts.”
As NLRB Chairman, John succeeded Phil, who returned to Morgan Lewis in 2018 after serving on the NLRB from 2013 to 2017, most recently as NLRB Chairman. Harry I. Johnson, III, who also served as an NLRB member and now co-leads Morgan Lewis’s US labor/management relations practice, joined Morgan Lewis after serving as an NLRB Board Member from 2013 to 2015.
Chambers USA has ranked Morgan Lewis’s elite nationwide labor and employment practice in Band 1 every year since 2012 and The Legal 500 US has ranked the firm in Tier 1 for Labor-Management Relations since 2013. With John’s return, Morgan Lewis counts 24 fellows in the prestigious College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.
