Judge Horace A. "Topper" Thompson, III to Join the Review Commission

Judge Horace A. "Topper" Thompson, III will join the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission on March 11, 2013, as an administrative law judge in its Denver, CO Office.

Prior to accepting appointment as an OSHRC Judge, Judge Thompson has been a lifelong resident of New Orleans, Louisiana and Pass Christian, Mississippi. Thompson received his JD from Tulane University in 1968, and completed his undergraduate work in the field of chemical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. From 1979 to 1984, he served as Management Co-Chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee of the American Bar Association Section on Labor and Employment Law. He co-edited the initial ABA/BNA treatise, Occupational Safety and Health Law (BNA, 1988) and contributed annually to the ABA/BNA treatise, International Labor and Employment Laws (BNA, 2009).

During his entire 38-year career as an attorney, he has focused his practice in labor and employment issues, specifically on occupational safety and health law. From 1968 to 1980, Thompson was a member of the labor practice of the New Orleans-based law firm of Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrére & Denégre. Then he co-founded the New Orleans-based labor relations and employment law firm of McCalla, Thompson, Pyburn & Ridley and from 1980 through 2002 participated as a member of its management committee. From 2002 through 2006, Thompson served as co-chair of the labor and employment practice group of Watkins, Ludlam, Winter & Stennis and held a resident position in the firm's Gulfport, MS and New Orleans, LA offices.

From 2006 through 2011 Thompson served as a member of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, serving from June 2007 through February 2009 as the Review Commission's Chairman. After his term as a member of the Review Commission, Judge Thompson served as an administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. From July 2011 to April 2012 he was stationed in the Hattiesburg ODAR Hearing Office, and from April 2012 until March 2013 he was stationed in the New Orleans ODAR Hearing Office.