Thomas W. Cestare is a member of the Pennsylvania, New York and Hawaii State Bar Associations. In addition to his J.D., he has an LLM in Labor Law.

He joined the Board’s Newark, New Jersey office in 1975 as a staff attorney. He later became a trial specialist in that office and as such was charged with the prosecution of the Agency’s most complicated cases. His unfair labor practice trials and U.S. District Court experiences are too numerous to be succinctly mentioned here. In 1982 he transferred to the Honolulu office of the NLRB and in 1984 he became the Officer-in-Charge of it. As Officer-in-Charge, he is responsible for the administration of the NLRA throughout the Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.

He has directly supervised all of the administrative and legal duties of the Honolulu staff for approximately 30 years. During this period of time he and attorneys from his office have appeared in numerous NLRB trials and hearings, bankruptcy court, state court, and in every U.S. District encompassed by the Honolulu office’s jurisdiction in a wide variety of cases.

In his career, Tom has mediated thousands of disputes on labor/management issues. He is a firm believer that the adoption of interest based bargaining as opposed to the adversary process of win/lose benefits parties involved in labor law issues as well as society as a whole.