Richard J. Hirn
Attorney at Law
5335 Wisconsin Ave NW,
Suite 440
Washington DC 20015
Federal Administrative, Trial and Appellate Litigation
Private Practice as a solo practitioner, October 1981 to present. This practice specializes in labor, constitutional law, civil service and employment discrimination litigation before administrative agencies and in federal courts through out the country. Representative clients include the National Weather Service Employees Organization; the Masters, Mates & Pilots, the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association; the Panama Canal Pilots Association, the Esso Industrial Employees Union and various state and local affiliates of the National Education Association. In 1994 I provided legal support to and served as a member of the national negotiating team of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association, AFL-CIO which negotiated five year, $500 million dollar plus, multiemployer collective bargaining agreements covering the U.S. maritime industry. In 1992, I led contract negotiations for the teachers' union at the dependents schools at the Quantico Marine Base. These were the first pay negotiations in the Federal sector to be resolved by the Federal Service Impasses Panel. I also negotiated the 1995 collective bargaining agreement between the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association and the Panama Canal Commission which included the first environmental differential for noise exposure in the Federal sector.
General Counsel, National Weather Service Employees Organization, October 1981 to present. Chief legal officer for the union of the meteorologists, forecasters and technicians employed nationwide by the National Weather Service. I serve as chief counsel in all litigation and supervise union local counsel. I have served as press spokesperson for the union on network and local television, radio and in print media. I represent the Union in legislative issues before Congressional offices and commitees.
Associate, Mulholland & Hickey, May 1980 - October 1981. Represented many of the nation's railroad unions in litigation under the Railway Labor Act as well as the International Association of Firefighters and the Public Employee Department of the AFL-CIO.
Attorney, Office of Appeals, National Labor Relations Board, August 1979- May 1981. Responsible for advising General Counsel of NLRB on issuing unfair labor practice complaints on appeal from NLRB Regional Directors' dismissal decisions.
Adjunct Instructor, Washington College of Law, American University, 1980-81 academic year.
_ Counsel for intervenor Fort Stewart Association of Educators in a landmark Supreme Court decision establishing the right of certain federal employees to collectively bargain over wages and monetary fringe benefits. Fort Stewart Schools v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, 110 S.Ct. 2043 (1990).
_ Won a test refund suit brought by DOD overseas civilian employees who had FICA taxes illegally withheld from their overseas allowances. Anderson, et al. v. U.S., 16 Cl. Ct. 530 (1989), aff'd, 929 F.2d 648 (Fed. Cir. 1991). As a result of this lawsuit, approximately 100,000 overseas federal employees will receive tax refunds in excess of $200 million.
_ Represented a major maritime union in a 1995 interest arbitration with an international liquified natural gas shipping company which resulted in a $75 million collective bargaining agreement preserving the status quo in face of the employer's demands for 40% wage and benefits concessions.
_ Represented a major maritime union in numerous contract rights arbitrations in 1994 and 1995, including a case in which Sea-Land Servives, Inc. (a CSX subsidiary) was ordered to continue to pay $2 million in Christmas bonuses to licensed port engineers.
_ Obtained an injunction prohibiting the Reagan Administration from requiring forecasters at the National Weather Service to submit to random drug testing. Quadros, et al. v. Reagan, No. C-88-1746 RHS (N.D.Cal. August 12, 1988).
_ Won reinstatement in the Court of Appeals for a union president who was transferred by the Department of Defense from Japan to Italy in retaliation for his union activities. Overseas Education Association v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, 824 F.2d 61 (D.C. Cir. 1987).
_ Achieved a settlement that guaranteed 1,300 teachers employed by the Army in its dependent schools their civil service retirement after the Office of Per sonnel Management issued new regulations abolishing their entitlement to re- tirement. Hess v. Marsh, No. 85-civ-9608 (S.D.N.Y. 1987).
_ Saved twenty-five jobs through an administrative appeal to the Assistant Sec retary of Commerce, who reversed a decision of the National Weather Ser vice to contract out the operations of its Communications Branch to RCA.
_ Litigated the first case of Hawaiian national origin discrimination. Kahakua, et al. v. Friday, No. 88-1668 (9th Cir. 1988). This case was the subject of a special report on All Things Considered, broadcast on National Public Radio on September 12, 1990 and was the subject of an article, Voices of America: Antidiscrimination Law and a Jurisprudence for the Last Reconstruction, 100 Yale L. J. 1329 (1991).
_ Negotiated back pay and a change to the Department of Defense regulations that reduced the housing allowance rate paid to married employees to only 75% of that paid to similarly situated single employees, which violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. Bushman, et al. v. United States, No. 756-85C (Cl. Ct. 1987).
_ Negotiated a $19,600 settlement on behalf of a U.S. citizen employed as a school secretary at the Clark Air Base in the Philippines, whose housing al lowance was terminated by the Department of Defense due to her Filipino national origin in violation of Title VII. Quijano v. Weinberger, No. 87-552-A (E.D.Va. 1987).
_ Won reinstatement with full back pay for a Seattle meteorologist who was terminated by the National Weather Service due to reverse race discrimi nation and in violation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. National Weather Service Employees Organization, Western Region and National Weather Service, FMCS No. 84K/07548 (Gaunt 1984).
_ Negotiated full back pay for a Kansas City Weather Service employee who was terminated from his position as a duplicating machine operator due to his mental retardation, in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, and due to his race. Ricky Nelson v. Baldrige, No. 83-1345 (W.D.Mo. 1984).
_ Currently litigating a national origin discrimination case before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of employees of the Panama Canal who are naturalized U.S. citizens of Panamanian and/or West Indian national origin. They allege that the Commission's practice of com pensating them at the same rate as Panamanian Canal employees, rather than at the rate paid to U.S. citizens, because they were Panamanian citizens on the date of their original hire, violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
District of Columbia Court of Appeals, December, 1979.
United States Supreme Court
United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the District of Maryland and the Northern District of California
United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Ninth, District of Columbia and Federal Circuits
United States Court of Federal Claims
United States Tax Court
B.A., Haverford College, Haverford, PA., 1976.
J.D., Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, D.C., 1979.
"Right To Appeal: Civil Service Due Process Amendments of 1990", The Washington Lawyer, March/April, 1991.
"Drug Tests Threaten Employers, Too", The New York Times, November 12, 1988.
"Weather Service Sailing Into Budget Storm", The Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 15, 1989.
"New Protection for a Basic Right - Access to Medical Care", The Washington Post, July 2, 1989.
"Maryland Closes Door on Operation Rescue", The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 3, 1989.
"Sending Title VII to the Jury", The Washington Lawyer, September/October, 1989.
"Title VII Cases Should Go to the Jury", The Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Banner Daily Journal, October 19, 1989.
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