Ochoa Law

09/17/2025

Please welcome Jack Waterhouse on his first day at Ochoa|Law!

Jack is a 2025 graduate of Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. He is currently awaiting Bar results but is already hard at work supporting our firm's efforts on behalf of the Labor Movement.

02/03/2025

Last week, the staff of the National Labor Relations Board, like all other federal employees, received the "Fork In The Road" email from Trump's Office of Personnel Management, "inviting" them to resign. Their union, NLRBU, has responded with this graphic. A small act of resistance.

Last week Trump fired the NLRB General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, and also illegally fired one of the NLRB Board members (thereby depriving the Board of a quorum). With no quorum, the Board can no longer decide cases before it.

This past Saturday, Trump fired the Acting General Counsel, Jessica Rutter, without naming a replacement. And today, as a result, we are receiving reports that the prosecution of cases before the NLRB has ground to a halt. No complaints can issue, no settlement agreements can be entered into. Hearings before Administrative Law Judges are being postponed.

As a result, for the time being at least, there is functionally no way to enforce the protections of the National Labor Relations Act.

EDIT: At 2:47pm Pacific Time on February 3, 2025, Trump appointed Bill Cowan (Regional Director of NLRB Region 21 -- covering Orange, Riverside, Imperial and San Diego Counties, as well as portions of LA County) as the Acting GC of the NLRB. In theory, at least portions of the NLRB should therefore creak back into motion. Though it is unclear what this means for cases pending in Region 21.

https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/president-trump-appoints-willam-b-cowen-acting-general-counsel-of-the

01/03/2025

And if you need help forming one, give us a call.

07/30/2024

Please join us in bidding a fond farewell to Ricardo Martinez, on his last day at Ochoa Law. Ricardo joined our firm in 2020, and has been a valuable part of our team, playing a key role in numerous victories.

Excited to see where his practice takes him.

02/26/2024

Ochoa Law is pleased to co-sponsor (and be speaking at) the Midwinter meeting of the ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law this week.

12/01/2023

Thank you to the International Labor Communications Association for inviting our firm to present at your annual conference on "The National Labor Relations Act for Union Communicators"

📷 credit to Brent Beltran, Comms Vato for UFCW Local 135

09/11/2023

Thank you to the John Lyons Memorial Foundation for recognizing Ricardo Ochoa as the "Chingón of the Year" at last night's celebration.

07/31/2023

Attorneys in public interest and public service (such as Legal Aid, or public sector attorneys) have long unionized, but attorneys in for-profit private practice have rarely done so -- until now!

Outten & Golden, a 65-lawyer U.S.-based law firm that represents plaintiffs in labor and employment litigation, said it has voluntarily recognized a union formed by its associate attorneys.

05/01/2023

from the annual conference of the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance in Pittsburgh, PA!

04/29/2023

Sad to miss the Progressive Labor Alliance's Progressive Labor Summit 2023, which our firm helped sponsor, but our attorneys are currently heading to Pittsburgh for the annual conference of the AFL-CIO's Union Lawyers Alliance.

Here's to much more cross-pollination among the Left in labor and electoral spaces.

02/25/2022

Congratulations to the Starbucks workers at the Power and Baseline store in Mesa, AZ, whose votes were counted today by the National Labor Relations Board, and who voted overwhelmingly (25-3) for representation by Workers United, an SEIU affiliate, becoming the third corporate Starbucks location in the US to successfully unionize, with over a hundred more stores coast-to-coast waiting to vote.

12/18/2021

Our firm was proud to have represented the San Diego Building & Construction Trades Council in the negotiation of this historic Community Benefits Agreement (a.k.a. Project Labor Agreement) with SANDAG - San Diego Association of Governments for construction associated with the new Regional Transportstion Plan.