Peter J. Hurtgen

Peter Hurtgen has more than 40 years’ experience handling nearly every facet of labor and employment law for private sector and public sector employers. His practice focuses on advising senior management on labor matters, particularly with respect to complex cases involving collective bargaining negotiations and settlements before the NLRB and novel or complex issues under the National Labor Relations Act. His practice also focuses on helping senior management evaluate the likelihood of obtaining favorable settlements and favorable adjudicated outcomes of employment litigation matters before federal and state courts.

Mr. Hurtgen’s government service included serving as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1997 to 2001 and as NLRB Chairman from 2001 to 2002. Following his NLRB service. Mr. Hurtgen also served as the Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) from 2002 until the end of 2004. He is the only person to have ever served on both the NLRB and as Director of FMCS.

In his role as FMCS Director, Mr. Hurtgen was involved in mediating settlements in numerous nationally significant negotiations, including the highly publicized West Coast ports labor-management dispute of 2002, which put approximately $300 billion worth of economic activity at risk. Mr. Hurtgen also mediated the 2004 negotiations between the United Food and Commercial Workers and representatives of Southern California's supermarket chains, returning 60,000 workers to their jobs after 141 days, thereby ending the longest strike in the history of the nation’s retail grocery industry.  Mr. Hurtgen also successfully supervised telecommunications industry mediations between SBC Communications Inc. and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) affecting 100,000 workers nationally and oversaw negotiations involving Verizon Communications, Inc., the CWA, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, affecting more than 78,000 workers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

In addition to having enjoyed an outstanding career on the labor law side, Mr. Hurtgen has had an extensive practice on the employment law side as well, including having first chaired 25 jury trials. One of Mr. Hurtgen’s most significant trials was the landmark case of Faragher vs. Boca Raton, which addressed the issue of employer liability for the unauthorized conduct of supervisors.  Mr. Hurtgen tried the case in both the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  Mr. Hurtgen would have argued the case before the Supreme Court of the United States, but was precluded from doing so because the Supreme Court granted certiorari on the very same day the Senate confirmed Mr. Hurtgen’s nomination by President Clinton to the NLRB.