作者:Anna Stolley Persky
2017年5月29日
With members in all 50 states 和 more than 80 countries, the D.C. 酒吧 is beginning a regular feature to profile the people who make up our community. Read about your peers, their lives, 和 their work around the world.
当D.C. 酒吧 member 托马斯·伦茨, senior partner at Atkinson, 和elson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, decided to focus on labor law, he was told it was a “dead area.“吓, he has gone on to have a nearly three-decade career h和ling labor 和 employment law issues from the firm’s offices in Cerritos 和 Pasadena, 加州.
Before entering private practice, Lenz worked for the National Labor Relations 董事会 in Los Angeles. He received his undergraduate degree form Marquette University 和 his law degree from the Louisiana State University Law Center.
你是怎么对劳动法感兴趣的?
I grew up in the Midwest, in a community with a lot of manufacturing. 约翰迪尔, 毛毛虫, 和其他公司都集中在我所在的伊利诺伊州社区, 这些公司都有劳工问题.
我父亲在家族企业工作. 我祖母开了一家酒吧, 我父亲接手并把它开成了一家卖酒的店, 那是我第一次当仓库管理员的地方. 我母亲是工会成员. 我认识的很多人, 我们家族企业的很多客户, 受到劳资纠纷或法律的影响. I saw labor law in terms of how it affected the people in my community, 当我上法学院的时候, 我对生意有了更好的了解, 公民权利, 涉及到宪法问题. 他们让我着迷.
You speak fluent Spanish 和 some Greek, French, 和 Portuguese. 你对语言的兴趣对你的职业生涯有何帮助?
我很早就对语言产生了兴趣. 在我长大的地方，西班牙语并没有被广泛使用, but my mother taught me what she knew while I was in elementary school. My gr和mother started teaching me Greek around the same time. Learning a new language is like deciphering a code 和 learning a new perspective on words, 即使在英语中. I ended up majoring in Spanish 和 even studied abroad at the University of Madrid.
After I graduated law school, the job market for lawyers was pretty tight. When interviewing for a job with the National Labor Relations 董事会 (NLRB), 我提到过我的西班牙语很流利. It turned out there was a lot of need for Spanish speakers in Los Angeles. I ended up packing up everything I had 和 moving to 加州 without ever having visited it. 从那以后我就一直在这里.
At the NLRB, I investigated 和 tried unfair labor practice cases. Most of my casework required the use of Spanish, 和 I did very well in my position. 如果我没有学西班牙语, 如果我没有掌握流利的语言, 如果我没有推销它, 我可能没有同样的职业机会.
在你1992年离开劳资关系委员会之后, you went into private practice 和 stayed at the same firm for the last 25 years. 这些年来你的公司和业务是如何发展的?
When I joined the firm in 1992, there were three offices 和 about 25 lawyers. 现在我们有9个办事处和170名靠谱的滚球平台. 该公司最初是一家精品劳动和就业靠谱的滚球平台事务所. Half of the firm represented school districts 和 the other half represented the private sector, 主要在建筑行业. 我们现在的成长远不止于此. We represent a wide variety of industries in the private sector 和 a number of public entities. 我们现在基本上是一家提供全方位服务的公司. We do litigation, advice, counsel, transactional work, 和 business disputes. 对于一个学区来说, 我们可以做它需要的任何事情, 从人事方面, 谈判, 交易, 有关提供特殊教育服务的事宜.
My area focuses on advising, training, 和 defending employers on workplace issues. I spend most of my time on issues involving employers 和 unions, 比如集体谈判, 处理劳动争议的申诉和仲裁, 调查, 和诉讼. My clients range from large international organizations to small family businesses. 我的客户遍及加州和美国各地.
I do training for my clients on a variety of workplace issues. 在劳动环境中, this includes work with non-union employers on the dos 和 don’ts when your business is going through a union organizing campaign. There are times when an employer will feel that their employees are betraying them if they talk to a labor union. 如果训练不当, an employer might even threaten their workers—if you talk to the union or if you sign a union card, 我们会炒了你. 说这些话是违法的. 和, if someone is disciplined or fired for talking to a union representative, 雇主最终可能会考虑歧视索赔. 我希望我的客户遵守规定, so I do the training to make sure they underst和 how to avoid running afoul of the law.
Do you anticipate the Trump administration making any changes to labor relations 规定 和 enforcement?
只要你的行政部门有变动, 你可以肯定规则会有变化, 规定, 政策, 以及事情是如何执行的. 特朗普政府, I predict that rules that were used to exp和 employee rights in the workplace will be reexamined in a number of ways. 一个例子是, under the Obama administration there was a lot of activity to challenge employers’ implementation 和 enforcement of rules on the use of emails or civility in the workplace. I expect the new administration will want to redefine the limits of permissible employee speech.
What advice do you have for lawyers just beginning their careers?
当我进入劳动法时，我被告知这是一个死胡同. 工会成员减少了, 和, 有人告诉我, there wouldn’t be a need for a traditional labor law practice. 我发现了什么, 然而, is that if you stay focused 和 you stick to what you want to do, you will find opportunities in the area of law that interests you. 你可以建立你想要的实践.
In addition, I would advise young lawyers to always take the high road in their interactions. It is very possible you will run into the same practitioners over 和 over again. 你想要文明——不要过河拆桥, 但是要尽你最大的努力去建立人际关系, 即使有对方靠谱的滚球平台. It’s important to promote civility 和 credibility, 和 by doing so, you help elevate the profession.
