United States Solicitor of Labor

Technopedia Center

Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
S1 Informatics S1 Information Systems S1 Information Technology S1 Computer Engineering S1 Electrical Engineering S1 Civil Engineering

faculty of Economics and Business
S1 Management S1 Accountancy

Faculty of Letters and Educational Sciences
S1 English literature S1 English language education S1 Mathematics education S1 Sports Education

United States Solicitor of Labor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

United States Solicitor of Labor
Seal of the Department of Labor
Incumbent Seema Nanda since July 14, 2021
United States Department of Labor
Seat	Frances Perkins Building, Washington, D.C.
Appointer	The President with Senate advice and consent
Formation	1913
Deputy	Elena S. Goldstein, Deputy Solicitor of Labor
Salary	Executive Schedule, level IV
Website	www.dol.gov/sol/

The United States solicitor of labor is the chief legal officer of the United States Department of Labor and the third-ranking officer of the department, behind the secretary of labor and deputy secretary of labor.^[1]^[2] The Office of the Solicitor has the second largest litigation department in the U.S. federal government, with about 500 lawyers in both national and regional offices.^[1]^[3] The Solicitor of Labor has independent authority to initiate lawsuits to enforce 180 federal workplace statutes.^[1]^[4] The position is a Presidential appointee requiring Senate confirmation, and is paid at Level IV of the Executive Schedule.^[5]

The Office of the Solicitor was established by the Organic Act of 1913, which separated the Department of Labor from the Department of Commerce and Labor, although a solicitor position for the combined department had existed since 1903. The solicitor of labor was originally located in the Department of Justice until it was transferred to the Department of Labor in 1933. In 1940, all Department attorneys and legal personnel were transferred to the supervision of the solicitor of labor.^[1]^[6] In the 1980s, the office attracted attention for delays in cases enforcing the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974,^[7] and for not seeking the maximum compensation for back wages due under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.^[8] In 2019, a memo directing lawyers to consult with agency heads before filing lawsuits against employers was criticized as ceding some of its authority to political appointees.^[3]

List

[edit]

The following people have held the office of Solicitor of Labor:^[9]

Solicitors	Took office	Left office
John B. Bensmore	1913	1918
John W. Abercrombie	1918	1921
Theodore G. Risly	1921	1932
Charles E. Wyzanski	1933	1935
Charles O. Gregory	1936	1937
Gerard D. Reilly	1937	1941
Warner D. Gardner	1941	1942
Irving J. Levy (Acting)	1942	1943
Douglas B. Maggs	1943	1945
William S. Tyson	1945	1953
Harry N. Routzohn	1953	1953
Stuart Rothman	1953	1959
Irving Nystrom (Acting)	1959	1961
Charles Donahue	1961	1969
Laurence Silberman	1969	1970
Peter Nash	1970	1971
Richard F. Schubert	1971	1973
William J. Kilberg	1973	1977
Carin Clauss	1977	1981
T. Timothy Ryan, Jr.	1981	1983
Francis X. Lilly	1984	1985
George R. Salem	1986	1989
Robert P. Davis	1989	1991
David S. Fortney (Acting)	1991	1992
Marshall Breger	1992	1993
Thomas S. Williamson, Jr.	1993	1996
J. Davitt McAteer (Acting)	1996	1997
Marvin Krislov (Acting)	1997	1998
Henry L. Solano	1998	2001
Judith E. Kramer (Acting)	2001	2001
Howard M. Radzely (Acting)	2001	January 11, 2002
Eugene Scalia	January 11, 2002	January 17, 2003
Howard M. Radzely	January 2003	December 2007
Gregory F. Jacob	December 2007	January 20, 2009
M. Patricia Smith	March 1, 2010	January 19, 2017
Nicholas C. Geale (Acting)	January 20, 2017	December 21, 2017
Kate S. O'Scannlain	December 21, 2017	January 20, 2021
Terri Johnson (Acting)	January 20, 2021	February 1, 2021
Elena S. Goldstein^[10] (Acting)	February 1, 2021	July 14, 2021
Seema Nanda^[11]	July 14, 2021	Present