Letitia Silas is a Partner in Conn Maciel Carey LLP’s national Labor & Employment Practice. She is a dynamic, engaging, and forward-thinking attorney, business advisor, and strategist with 15 years of legal and business experience in the private and public sectors. Her background includes senior executive, in-house, law firm, and government agency experience as well as broad exposure to a wide variety of legal and business issues spanning a variety of industries including, but not limited to, hospitality, manufacturing, higher education, healthcare, public safety, entertainment, gaming, performing arts, television, radio, and government.
Letitia helps businesses develop and drive effective strategies to manage complex labor-management and employee relations, ensure compliance with government mandates and regulations, mitigate legal and reputational risks, tackle legal charges, and establish and maintain a positive brand. Letitia also defends employers in matters before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and other state and federal agencies.
Before joining CMC, Letitia was an attorney with the National Labor Relations Board, where she tried complex cases and conducted representation elections. She also completed a detail in the NLRB’s Solicitor’s Office. She continued her career in private practice for a major AM200 labor and employment law firm before going on to a historic university and medical center, where she served as Senior Labor Counsel and Director of Labor Relations.
Most recently, Letitia served as the Executive Director of Systemwide Labor Relations for the University of California, where she crafted and led labor strategies for a $36 billion enterprise, including 10 university campuses, 5 hospitals, and a national research laboratory, covering 135,000 union-represented employees. Under her forward-looking leadership, the UC system achieved eight historic collective-bargaining agreements covering over 70,000 employees in just two years. Her strategic initiatives also restored trust and stability following labor strife and successfully ended a five-week statewide strike while mitigating the organization’s risk of legal, business, and reputational harm.
Letitia’s is a sought-after expert on labor/employee relations and has spent her career helping to shape the discourse on labor law and workplace matters, evidenced by her contributions to the American Bar Association’s Developing Labor Law treatise and conferences, the ABA’s annual labor and employment conferences, as well as publications like HR Magazine and Law 360 as well as her role as a sought-after panelist at national and international conferences. She is also the creator and host of CMC’s national podcast Terms & Conditions.
Letitia leads CMC’s Traditional Labor practice. Her practice focuses on assisting employers with effectively responding to today’s dynamic workforce and challenging workplace realities. She has a strategic, solutions-based and practical approach that her clients appreciate.
Key Services
- Advising and defending unionized and non-unionized employers in matters arising under the National Labor Relations Act and other applicable state and federal laws.
- Representing employers in unfair labor practice proceedings, representation cases, and arbitration proceedings.
- Serving as Strategic Advisor and Chief Negotiator for management in collective bargaining negotiations.
- Conducting union vulnerability and risk assessments.
- Advising and representing employers in connection with representation petitions and union election campaigns.
- Advising employers on collective-bargaining strategies, contract implementation, and contract administration.
- Strike contingency planning and response.
- Advising on labor implications in merger and acquisition transactions.
- Providing crisis and change management advice and counsel.
- Conducting complex internal investigations.
- Developing labor relations training and compliance programs.
- Conducting employee handbook reviews.
- Conducting wage and hour and EEO compliance audits.
Areas of Training Expertise
- Performance Management
- Labor Law Fundamentals and Best Practices
- Union Petition Risk Identification and Mitigation
- Managing in a Union Environment
- Negotiation Strategies and Preparation
- Strike Contingency Planning and Response
- Contract Administration and Compliance
- Grievance Processing and Dispute Resolution
- Collective-Bargaining on Campus: Strategy Considerations for Academic and Non-Academic Units (NACUA, Chicago, IL, June 27, 2023).
- From the Shop Floor to the Bargaining Table: The Resurgent Labor Movement in the US and Globally (American Bar Association International Labor and Employment Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 2023).
- Yesterday and Today: Experienced Administrators Reflect on Collective Bargaining in Higher Education (Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute of Hunter College, New York, NY, March 2023)
- Protected Concerted Activity and Social and Political Expression at Work: Where Do We Draw the Line? (American Bar Association, Labor and Employment Conference, Washington, D.C., November 2022)
- Building and Managing Your Personal and Professional Brand (University of California Black Administrators Council Conference, Riverside, CA, February 2022)
- Back to Basics Labor Relations 101 (University of California Human Resources Institute, Irvine, CA, March 2022)
- Coming Out of the Dark: Renewing Labor and Employee Relations (University of California Administrative Management Professionals Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, April 2022)
- Author, Resolving COVID-Related Labor Conflict, HR Magazine (2020)
- Author, Six Steps to Rework How You Manage Remote Employees, TNLT Magazine (2020)
- Letitia Silas, Managing the New Normal in Labor Relations During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Wolters Kluwer (2020)
- Author, Managing Off-Duty Pandemic Conduct Can Create On-Duty Headaches for Healthcare
- Author, How to Reduce Disruptions in Your Workplace, Law 360.com (2020)
- Chapter Co-Editor, Developing Labor Law, Cumulative Supplement, Chapter 6 (2016-2020)
- Chapter Co-Editor, Developing Labor Law, Seventh Edition Cumulative Supplement, Chapter 6, (2018)
- Chapter Contributing Editor, Developing Labor Law, Seventh Edition, Chapter 10 (2017)
- Chapter Co-Editor, Developing Labor Law, Sixth Edition Supplement, Chapter 10 (2016)
- Member, National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL)
- J.D., Suffolk University Law School, cum laude
- Master of Public Administration, California State University Northridge, with distinction
- B.A., California State University Northridge, with honors
