Bush Picks Thompson for OSHRC Chairman
President Bush has designated Horace A. "Topper" Thompson III to serve as chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Thompson, a Mississippi labor lawyer, has been an OSHRC member since June 2006.
His entire 38-year legal career has been concentrated on labor and employment law with a focus on occupational safety and health law, according to OSHRC's June 20 news release. From 2002 through 2006, he was co-chair of the Labor and Employment Law Practice Group of the Law Firm of Watkins Ludlam Winter and Stennis and held a resident position in the firm's Gulfport, Miss., and New Orleans offices.
"I am honored that President Bush has bestowed the confidence in me to handle the day-to-day operations of an agency responsible for rendering decisions important to safety and health issues in the workplace. I look forward to working with Commissioner [Thomasina V.] Rogers in an effort to finalize pending cases expeditiously," Thompson said in the release.
Rogers, a former chairman, is the only other OSHRC commissioner at this time. She is serving a term that will end in April 2009. W. Scott Railton, also a former chairman, was the third commissioner until April 27, 2007, when his term ended.
Thompson received his J.D. from Tulane University in 1968. He co-edited the ABA Treatise on OSHA Law (BNA, 1983) and contributed to the ABA/BNA Treatise on International Labor Law. From 1979 to 1984, he was management co-chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee, American Bar Section on Labor and Employment Law.