Attorney brings union experience to law firm
By Sheila Pursglove
Employment and labor law attorney Cliff Hammond has seen both sides of the fence, giving him a unique viewpoint.
“Perspective is important,” says Hammond, a senior attorney with Nemeth Law PC in Detroit who previously served as Director of Legal Affairs for Service Employees International Union, Local 79 and as an attorney for UAW Legal Services in Dearborn. “I’ve had the opportunity to practice the same type of law for clients who have different goals and views of what the law says. Many times that gives you an advantage to know what the other side is trying to accomplish, so you can either reach a faster resolution, or you can begin building your defenses around what you anticipate to be a weakness. Other times both sides know what the other wants and it’s all about simply doing your job and defending your client.”
Hammond, who joined Nemeth Law eight years ago, represents private companies and public employers, and counsels and litigates before federal and state courts and federal and state agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and EEOC.
“I think this area of the law is the most rewarding – you get a chance to meet great people and frankly learn a lot,” he says. “It’s one of the few areas where you have the opportunity to work with folks in all sorts of businesses and industries – rank-and-file employees, managers, human resource personnel, consultants, experts, executives, and of course other lawyers. You not only have to know the law, but you have to learn and get a general understanding of how each business you work with operates and the company’s goals.”
Hammond’s work allows him to see how anything from a small trucking company to a worldwide production company operates.
“I’ve had the ability to see how the internal mechanics of public employers and agencies both operate and change,” he says. “If you like learning how people work and seeing how different production and business strategies are put together – this is a great area of the law to work in.”
Hammond has handled more than 300 labor arbitrations, agency and court hearings, and trials; served as chief negotiator for initial, successor and re-opened contract negotiations for a wide variety of public and private sector employers; and coordinated and planned management’s response to union strike and picketing activity. He also counsels clients on union avoidance, grievance avoidance, organizing campaign rights, and management’s role and restrictions during a decertification drive.
In employment law he evaluates clients’ policies and procedures and litigates, mediates, arbitrates, and resolves employment complaints and lawsuits.
One of the most notable national labor activities is the $15 an hour minimum wage campaign.
“This has been brewing for the last several years, bankrolled by major unions, to raise minimum wages –and of course pick up some union members along the way,” Hammond says, adding that the campaign caught some traction by the end of 2014. “Not only has the process become more visible, many states, including Michigan, have already increased their minimum wages. Some employers are doing the same to get ahead of the curve of the protests. It will be interesting to see in 2015 if the campaign was so successful, it outlived its purpose and loses some steam.”
Two other current big issues are how Michigan and the federal government seem to be going in completely opposite directions on their approach to unions, Hammond notes.
“At the state level, Michigan has enacted Right to Work. Union employees appear to be jumping off the bandwagon in droves not wanting to pay dues, even if they are covered by a union contract,” he explains. “The free fall in union participation in Michigan for the past decade continued in 2014.”
Likewise, several legislative measures have limited what public sector union employees can even bargain about in negotiations, he adds. “While the National Labor Relations Board is mulling an administrative law judge’s decision that Northwestern University’s football players can unionize, at the end of 2014, Michigan passed a law making it loud and clear that Coach Harbaugh does not have to worry about the union in his first year, because Michigan public university athletes are not employees for the purposes of unionizing in Michigan.”
According to Hammond, at the national level, the NLRB is taking strong and aggressive action to permit employees faster elections, in potentially smaller or tailored units.
“New election rules will significantly decrease some procedural options companies use to narrow issues before an election, such as who should be eligible to vote,” he says.
He mentions that the NLRB is also taking aim at a couple of fundamental practices used by many American businesses: the division between franchise and franchisor and between company and contract employees. The ability of a franchisor to avoid liability for the actions of a franchise owner is currently being tested with a case involving McDonalds, and the NLRB is poised to potentially allow a union to organize both company and temporary contract employees in a single election and bargaining process, he explains.
“Those are major deals for employers who have structured their business expecting some degree of separation and security in franchise and temporary and subcontracting relationships – so employers have to really begin to look at their business models and the potential risks and liabilities.”
The NLRB is also looking to significantly expand its footprint by litigating issues regarding work rules, policies, and disciplinary practices of non-union employers, and appears poised to actively clarify (expand) the right of employees to express or talk both verbally and through social media without being disciplined, he notes.
“The NLRB recently ruled employees could use company email to discuss the union and will begin requiring employers to provide the telephone numbers and email addresses of employees who are subject to a union election.”
A writer on unionization trends, Hammond speaks nationally on labor and employment law matters including presentations to the Airport Minority Advisory Council, The American Hospital Association, American Society of Employers (ASE), Briefings Media Group, and Michigan Health and Hospital Association.
Recognized by Michigan’s Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star,” and by Michigan Lawyers Weekly as an “Up and Coming Lawyer,” Hammond earned his undergrad degree in political science and education from the University of Delaware, where he was a multi-sport collegiate athlete and member of the university’s all time Top Ten list in indoor 35-pound weight throw and outdoor hammer throw.
“I liked to talk, read, and compete, and I took an interesting pre-law class with a good professor,” he says. “I didn’t know anyone who was a lawyer, but he convinced me that being an attorney would be a good career choice. A few years later, I went looking for that guy. Lucky for him, he retired,” he says with a smile.
Hammond earned his juris doctor from Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Del., and worked as an attorney in Saginaw before joining Nemeth Law.
A Delaware native from the tiny burg of Houston (house-ton), with a population of 374, Hammond now makes his home in Livonia, with Colleen, his wife of 11 years, and daughters Brooke, 9, and Bristol, 5. Elsa the dog and Tiger the cat round out the family. In his leisure time, Hammond enjoys sports, travel, reading, and woodworking/tinkering, and volunteers at his church and at his daughters’ school.
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