On December 18, 2025, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominations of labor attorneys Scott Mayer and James D. Murphy to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Crystal S. Carey to serve as the NLRB’s general counsel. The confirmation of the two Board nominees restores a quorum, allowing the Board to function and providing some certainty for labor relations after the five-member Board was left with only one member for months.
Quick Hits
- The U.S. Senate confirmed President Trump’s nominations of James D. Murphy and Scott Mayer to the NLRB, and Crystal S. Carey to be the NLRB’s general counsel.
- The confirmations restore a quorum of three members on the NLRB, enabling the Board to function and decide cases. Carey’s appointment is expected to shift enforcement policies at the NLRB in line with the Trump administration.
- Despite having a quorum, the NLRB is unlikely to address any of the employee-friendly cases decided during the Biden administration, as the NLRB’s long-standing tradition commands that there be three votes to overturn established precedent.
- The new NLRB general counsel is expected to shift the enforcement policies of the NLRB, having criticized her predecessor’s approach, which may lead to significant changes in how alleged labor violations are handled.
The Senate voted 53–43 to approve a Senate Resolution confirming a slate of ninety-seven Trump administration nominations en bloc that included NLRB nominations.
- Scott Mayer, an in-house legal counsel and current chief labor counsel at an American multinational corporation, fills the seat last held by Lauren McFerran, a Democratic appointee whose term expired on December 16, 2024. The new term expires on December 16, 2029.
- James Murphy, a career attorney at the NLRB who most recently served as the chief counsel to NLRB Chairman Marvin E. Kaplan, fills the seat vacated by former member John F. Ring, expiring on December 16, 2027.
- Crystal Carey, a partner at a private practice law firm with eight years of experience as an attorney with the NLRB, will serve as the general counsel for a term of four years. She replaces the current acting general counsel, William B. Cowen, who served following President Trump’s removal of Biden-appointed former General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo.
The Board has lacked a quorum since President Trump removed Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox in his first days in office in January 2025. For months, the NLRB has had only one sitting member: David Prouty, a Democratic member nominated by President Biden in 2021, whose term is set to expire in August 2026.
Mayer’s and Murphy’s confirmations follow a nearly six-month process after President Trump nominated them in July 2025. Their confirmations mean the Board will now have a quorum of three out of five members, with two of the members being Republican appointees.
Carey will replace Acting NLRB General Counsel William B. Cowen, who had served in that capacity after President Trump removed Abruzzo in January. While Cowen took actions to rescind the prior general counsel’s memoranda and align the NLRB with the administration’s policy priorities, Carey’s confirmation will allow the NLRB general counsel’s office to take further action. The general counsel plays a crucial role in overseeing the investigation and prosecution of alleged labor violations, as well as in establishing enforcement policies.
Carey is expected to differ significantly from Abruzzo and align closely with the Trump administration. During committee hearings, Carey criticized her predecessor’s penchant for stretching the bounds, which she believed potentially contributed to a backlog of cases, and she called for an organizational assessment of the agency.
Next Steps
The confirmation of the two Board nominees, which restores a quorum to the Board, together with the confirmation of the new general counsel, will enable the NLRB to return to close-to-normal operations in the coming year and further implement the Trump administration’s policy priorities.
However, that does not mean employers should expect the Board to reconsider some of the employee-friendly NLRB decisions issued during the Biden administration. Long-standing Board tradition requires at least three affirmative votes to reverse extant precedent. That means that with the current makeup of the Board, with two Republican nominees and one Democratic nominee, it is unlikely the Board will address those decisions.