Paul DeCamp, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Law360, in “Labor Secretary Confirms Departure to Run NHL Union,” by Max Kutner. (Read the full version – subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh confirmed Thursday that he will be leaving his post as head of the U.S. Department of Labor to run the National Hockey League players' union.

Walsh's move to serve as executive director of the National Hockey League Players' Association had been expected for more than a week. …

DOL observers have said they expect Julie Su, the deputy labor secretary, to fill the role for now, and congressional groups have already urged President Joe Biden to nominate her to fill it permanently.

Walsh indicated in his email to colleagues that Su will oversee the agency when he leaves.

"Julie is an incredible leader and has been central to our success as a team and as a department," Walsh wrote to colleagues. "With the kind of leadership and talent assembled across the department, I am confident there will be continuity and the work will be sustained."

Su has been serving as deputy secretary since her July 2021 Senate confirmation. Before joining the Biden administration, she had been California's labor secretary and led that state's Labor and Workforce Development Agency. …

The transition from Walsh to Su could shift the DOL's priorities, observers previously told Law360. Whereas Walsh has often seemed to prioritize union issues, Su could put more emphasis on wage and hour issues, those observers said.

"Any time there's a change in leadership in a department, there is an opportunity for the administration to go in a different direction, policy-wise," Paul DeCamp of management-side firm Epstein Becker Green, another former Bush-era Wage and Hour Division administrator, said Thursday. "We don't yet have any indication of any deep desire by the administration to pivot from a policy standpoint in the labor space."

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