Linda Dreeben, the top appellate lawyer at the National Labor Relations Board, is leaving the agency next month, ending a 40-plus-year career there.

Dreeben, deputy associate general counsel, has been the agency's lead appellate advocate since 2008, representing the board in enforcement and compliance cases in courts across the country. She is planning to leave the agency Feb. 22, according to a notice she filed in a pending court case.

Dreeben declined to comment Tuesday about her resignation and any future plans. The labor board did not comment immediately.

Dreeben was named head of the NLRB's appellate and Supreme Court branch in 2008. Earlier, in 2000, Dreeben was named deputy chief of the agency's appellate court branch, which conducts litigation involving the enforcement of NLRB orders. The Princeton, New Jersey, native began her career at the NLRB in 1976.

Announcing her appointment in 2008, then-NLRB general counsel Ronald Meisburg, now at Hunton Andrews Kurth, said: “Linda Dreeben is extremely deserving of this promotion. She has over 30 years of experience in the appellate court branch, many managing complex appellate litigation which involves crafting and mounting the strongest possible defense of the board's decisions in court.”

Dreeben was counsel of record for the labor board in the U.S. Supreme Court case NLRB v. Murphy Oil, but Richard Griffin, then the board's general counsel, argued.

The justices, divided, ruled that employment agreements can ban class actions. Dreeben's brother is Michael Dreeben, a deputy solicitor general at the U.S. Justice Department who is working with the special counsel, Robert Mueller III, on the investigation and prosecution of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.

Linda Dreeben is leaving the labor board at a time of transition and tension there. President Donald Trump's renomination of Obama-era board member Mark Gaston Pearce was held up in the Senate amid criticism from Republicans and business groups.

The NLRB, divided, quickly moved to undo Obama-era rules and regulations, embracing business-friendly approaches. The board is led by John Ring, a former Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner in Washington, and Peter Robb, a management-side lawyer from Vermont, is serving as general counsel.

One major dispute on the board's plate right now focuses on the scope of liability for companies that contract with other employers. Ring last year initiated a rule-making process that is expected to reverse the Obama-era board's “joint employment” standard.

The joint-employer issue is also facing a challenge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Dreeben had been involved in that case, but she notified the court Tuesday that she was leaving the agency.

Assistant General Counsel David Habenstreit filed a notice of appearance to represent the NLRB as lead counsel in the joint-employer case in the D.C. Circuit. NLRB lawyers Ruth Burdick and Joel Heller also represent the board.

Dreeben received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1973, and graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1976.

Read more:

Justices, Divided, Say Employment Contracts Banning Class Actions Are Lawful

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Mike Scarcella contributed reporting from Washington.