Nicole A. Buffalano

Labor & Employment

Los Angeles

Before joining Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Nicole Buffalano worked as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in its New York and Los Angeles offices.

"I was intrigued by the long and evolving history of labor unions, by the fact that employers had to be told not to retaliate against employees who supported unions or spoke up about workplace issues, and by the very political nature of all of it," she said.

Her current work primarily revolves around the National Labor Relations Act and representing clients in collective bargaining negotiations, arbitrations and proceedings before the NLRB.

Buffalano said one of her most notable achievements includes representing the US Soccer Federation in the complex collective bargaining negotiations with the men's and women's national teams. This landmark negotiation not only equalized FIFA World Cup prize money, but also established a first-of-its-kind revenue-sharing framework for both teams.

"We had two separate bargaining units, each with their own set of issues and concerns, negotiating two separate but dependent contracts," Bufflano said. "It is also difficult - and unusual - to be negotiating a pay structure while equal pay litigation was unfolding, movies about the equal pay issues were being released, the NWSL and its relationship to US Soccer was rapidly changing, and systemic abuse charges in the NWSL were being reported and investigated. I can certainly say that no other negotiation I've done, while complex in their own ways, have had any of these features."

More recently, she's focused on the NLRB cases in which student athletes are alleged to be "employees" under the law.

In one case, the General Counsel alleged that college football and men's and women's basketball players at USC were "employees" and that calling them "student athletes" was unlawful, akin to misclassifying independent contractors, Buffalano said. NCAA and the PAC-12 were also involved as alleged "joint employers" of the student athletes. No decision has yet been issued in this case.

A second case involves a finding by an NLRB Regional Director that the men's basketball players at Dartmouth were "employees" and could, therefore, unionize. That case is pending review before the NLRB.

Buffalano said from an NLRB perspective, the agency seems to have overcommitted itself and is moving cases through the process very slowly - much more slowly than in the past.

"The NLRB is also settling less cases as its settlement requirements become more aggressive, resulting in many cases just languishing in the investigation and litigation process," she said. "It will be interesting to see how the agency deals with their resource issues, assuming a new administration doesn't come in and install its own general counsel."