President Donald Trump nominated employer-side labor law attorney Crystal Carey to be general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) March 25. The NLRB general counsel is the top prosecutor of violations of the National Labor Relations Act by employers or unions and also oversees NLRB field offices that investigate charges and administer union certification elections.
Carey worked for the NLRB from 2009 to 2018, rising from intern to field attorney to senior counsel to an NLRB board member.
She left the NLRB in April 2018 to work for the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and became partner there (one of its owners) in October 2024. Morgan Lewis was listed as the world’s 10th largest law firm as of 2023 in Law.com’s Global 200 ranking, with over 2,000 attorneys and $2.9 billion in revenue. The firm has represented Amazon in its efforts to squash union campaigns. It also represented Donald Trump and the Trump organization.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters — which has had better relations with the Trump administration than most other unions — put out a statement the same day calling Carey a “union-busting corporate attorney” and saying she poses a serious threat to workers. The Teamsters spokesperson listed in the statement did not respond to an email asking for examples.
Certainly Carey is no Jennifer Abruzzo. Abruzzo was Biden’s appointee as general counsel. During her three-plus years in charge, she moved aggressively to roll back decades-old anti-union interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act that violated the law’s intent, which is “to encourage collective bargaining.”
The Trump administration fired Abruzzo Jan. 28.
Carey’s nomination must first be confirmed by the U.S. Senate before she can take office.
