Partner
212-228-7727 ext. 1218
khirozawa@grmny.com
Kent Hirozawa was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate for a term as Member of the National Labor Relations Board. He served as a member of the NLRB until his term expired in 2016. Prior to his service as a Board member, Mr. Hirozawa was Chief Counsel to former NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce. During his seven years at the Board, Mr. Hirozawa participated in numerous decisions that have had a significant impact on labor law, including major decisions concerning bannering, picketing, union organizing, independent contractors, joint employers, mandatory collective-action waivers, employee use of e-mail and social media, and the right of student assistants at private universities to form unions. He also participated in the modernization and streamlining of the Board’s procedural rules in election cases. After his term as a Board member expired, Mr. Hirozawa was a visiting scholar at New York University School of Law, and he taught labor law at the City University of New York School of Law.
Before his service at the Board, Mr. Hirozawa was a partner in Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss for more than twenty years. He served as counsel to many unions and employee benefit funds, and represented them in proceedings in federal and state court and before the NLRB, the New York Public Employment Relations Board, and other federal and state agencies. He also represented many individuals and groups of workers in wage-and-hour, civil rights, professional discipline, and other litigation.
Mr. Hirozawa received his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law. He is fluent in Spanish. Mr. Hirozawa is admitted in New York State, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.