Mark Gaston Pearce
Mark Gaston Pearce is an American lawyer, arbitrator and university professor who is best known for serving as a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Pearce was designated chairman of the board by President Barack Obama on August 28, 2011, and served as chairman until January 22, 2017. He currently is a visiting professor and the executive director of the Workers' Rights Institute at Georgetown University Law Center. Early life and career. Pearce was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended and later graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1971. Pearce received a bachelor 's degree in government from Cornell University in 1975 and a Juris Doctor from the University at Buffalo Law School in 1978. Following his graduate from University at Buffalo, Pearce was admitted to the New York Bar in 1979 and began his career at the NLRB as an attorney and later as district trial specialist in the board's regional Buffalo office. Pearce remained with the NLRB until 1994, after which he left for private practice, cofounding the firm Creighton, Pearce, Johnsen & Giroux. After entering private practice Pearce served by appointment of the governor of New York State to the  New York State Industrial Board of Appeals as well as several state committees and commissions. He also served as a certified mediator for the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. Pearce is currently a panel arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (United States). He has lectured and given continuing legal education presentations before state and national bar associations, labor management organizations and educational institutions throughout the country. Pearce has received numerous honors and recognition from labor and community organizations. Most recently he received special recognition from the Lawyers  Coordinating Committee of the AFL–CIO; was placed on the Honor Roll of the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and was bestowed the Leadership Award from the Western New York Council on Occupational Safety and Health. NLRB tenure. President Barack Obama appointed Pearce as a Member of the NLRB on April 7, 2010, and he was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 22, 2010. Obama initially sent his nomination of Pearce to the United States Senate alongside his nomination of Craig Becker in July 2009. The appointment was opposed by Senate Republicans and the United States Chamber of  Commerce delaying a Senate confirmation vote on Pearce and Craig. Obama eventually nominated Pearce and Craig by recess appointment. Term as NLRB chairman. Pearce was named chairman of the NLRB on August 27, 2011. Like the NLRB's legacy during the Obama years as a whole, Pearce's tenure as NLRB chairman has been characterized by business groups as favorable to labor unions. Personal life. In addition to his legal career, Pearce is an accomplished oil painter. He formerly served on the board of directors of Buffalo Arts Studio and the advisory council of the Burchfield Penney Art Center and  has exhibited at several venues throughout the years, including Images of Us By Us, Burchfield Penney Art Center, March – April 2018 (contributing artist);  Art Expo and opening of the Buffalo Museum of Science's Lillian P. Benbow Visual Arts Gallery, April 2016 (contributing artist); Buffalo Arts Council Hope & Honor, New Paintings by Mark Pearce, February – March 2002 (solo exhibition); Making the Connection – Collaboration of the WNY Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site and The Burchfield Penney Art Center – January 1999 (contributing artist); Exhibition of Local African-American Artists; Ikenga Gallery, 1993 (contributing artist). Mark Gaston Pearce