Richard Renner

Attorney

Richard Renner brings more than 40 years of experience fighting for workers’ rights to The Noble Law, where he represents employees in whistleblower and discrimination claims.

Richard has extensive experience representing whistleblowers in private industry and government agencies. He has represented whistleblowers at the U.S. Department of Labor since 1995. He has testified at OSHA’s stakeholder meetings about the need to give whistleblowers hope that they will get relief. He has submitted regulatory comments urging OSHA to adopt rules to simplify and expedite whistleblower cases.

In 1995 Richard co-founded the law firm of Tate & Renner. Richard worked for the Washington, DC, employment law firm of Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman and Fitch (KCNF) from 2013 to 2023.

Richard has also worked in legal services, for a labor union, and for CASA de Maryland.

Washingtonian Magazine named Richard as one of the best whistleblower attorneys in Washington, DC, in 2020.

He served as Legal Director of the National Whistleblowers Center. In 2012, the NWC fired Richard and his coworkers after they formed a staff union. The New York Times published an article about the claim he filed with the National Labor Relations Board and the irony of a workers’ rights organization retaliating against its own employees. This experience now bonds Richard to his clients’ causes when they face adversity for exercising their rights.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/business/dealbook/whistle-blower-group-found-itself-target-of-labor-complaint.html?_r=0

Richard has written a series of amicus, or friend-of-the-court, briefs to advance worker rights. He wrote the only amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to accept Lawson v. FMR LLC, 571 U.S. 429 (2014), for review. He successfully argued that the Supreme Court needed to restore whistleblower protections for the employees of corporate contractors.

In Foster v. Univ. of Md.-Eastern Shore, 787 F.3d 243 (4th Cir 2015), the Fourth Circuit agreed with Richard’s brief and held that traditional methods of proving unlawful retaliation apply to meet the “but for” causation standard.

In Schroeder v. Greater New Orleans Federal Credit Union, 664 F.3d 1016 (5th Cir. 2011), Richard’s amicus brief argued that federal banking laws protect internal reports of violations.

Richard’s dedication to pro bono and social policy work is equally impressive. He has worked with low-income residents on consumer, housing, government-benefit and other civil matters. In his free time he enjoys staying active and spending time with his grandchildren.

Bar Admissions:

• Ohio (inactive)
• District of Columbia, 2009
• Maryland, 2012
• U.S. Supreme Court, 1987
• U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Federal and District of Columbia Circuits
• U.S. District Courts for the Districts of the District of Columbia and Maryland.
• Not currently licensed to practice in North Carolina, but application for admission to the North Carolina State Bar is pending and practicing law in North Carolina pursuant to Rule 5.5(e) of the North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct.

Professional Organizations:

• National Lawyers Guild
• National Employment Lawyers Association

Awards:

• 2004 award for Big Brother of the Year from BB/BS of East Central Ohio
• Honored by Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) at their Breakfast for Heroes, 2017
• Recipient of Outstanding Pro Bono service award from the Montgomery County (Maryland) Bar Association, 2024
• Pillars Club Community Service Award 1995
• Tuscarawas County NAACP Freedom Fund Award for the Furtherance of Social Justice, 2008

Publications:

• Maintains a table of over 100 federal anti-retaliation provisions. https://www.taterenner.com/fedchart.php
• Comments to OSHA on improving its whistleblower protection program, 2023-10-27.
• Amicus brief for whistleblower rights groups in Farrington v. DOT (pending), Federal Circuit No. 2023-1901, urging narrow application of “duty speech” under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(f)(2), 2023-10-12.
• Amicus brief for U.S. Department of Labor, Administrative Review Board (ARB), in Fagan v. Navy, on the authority of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) to issue subpoenas in whistleblower cases, 2023-05-17.
• Comments to EEOC on amendment to 29 C.F.R. § 1614.407 on when federal employees should be permitted to file EEO complaints in federal court (Document ID EEOC-2019-0001-0020), 2019-04-09.
• Wrote amicus brief for U.S. Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board in Palmer v. Canadian National Railway/Illinois Central Railroad.
• Comments to the Local Rules and Forms Committee of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on the effect of ESI Principles on whistleblower cases, June 1, 2016.
• Comments to EEOC on Revised EEO Management Directive 110 (Document ID EEOC-2014-0001-0001), 2014-04-25.
• Comments to OSHA on Procedures for Handling of Retaliation Complaints under Section 402 of the Food Safety Modernization Act (Document ID OSHA-2011-0859), 2014-04-14.
• Lead author of NELA amicus brief in Howe v. City of Akron, 557 Fed.Appx. 402 (6th Cir. 2014), against a $97,056.18 sanction imposed on civil rights attorneys. 2013-04-23.
• Comments to OSHA about their new Whistleblower Complaint form, 2013-03-18.
• Comments to Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, 2013-03-01, expressing concern that restrictions on discovery will disadvantage whistleblowers.
• Amicus brief in Day v. Department of Homeland Security for NELA. 2013-02-28
• Comments to U.S. Department of Labor on Rules of Practice and Procedure for Hearings Before the Office of Administrative Law Judges, 2013-02-04.
• Written public comment and oral testimony to the Department of Labor’s Whistleblower Protection Program Advisory Committee, 2013-01-29.
• Comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, urging health insurance coverage for immigrants with lawful deferred status, 2012-10-21.
• Comments to the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on regulations for handling whistleblower complaints under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) as modified by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
• “Blowing the Whistle,” a letter to the editor printed by Scientific American, December, 2010.
• Comments to the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on regulations for handling whistleblower complaints under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CSPIA), Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA), National Transit System Security Act (NTSSA), and the Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA).
• Report to the UN Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council, on how the United States fails to comply with international human rights standards protecting whistleblowers, 2010-04-19.
• Amicus brief for Ohio Supreme Court in Peters v. Columbus Steel Castings Co., 2007-Ohio-4787, protecting widows from the arbitration agreements of the spouse’s employer.
• “The Most Pressing Issues in Representing Whistleblowers” to NELA Convention, 2009.
• Author of A Union Victory at Case Farms web page article, 2007.
• “Federal Environmental Whistleblower Complaints,” Employee Rights Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer 2002), pp. 29-34.

Presentations:

• “Issue Spotting and Elections of Remedies,” NELA’s 2024 Spring Seminar, Representing Federal and Public Employees, 2024-04-06.
• “OSC/Whistleblowers,” for the ABA Federal Sector Labor & Employment Law Committee Midyear Meeting with Emilee Collier, 2023-04-26
• “What Federal Employees Should Know About Whistleblower Protections” presented to AFGE Local 17, 2022-10-25.
• “Congress needs to update protections for workplace-safety whistleblowers,” letter to the Washington Post, 2020-05-06.
• “Labor X Tech: Know Your Rights!” to the Tech Workers Coalition, 2019-11-21
• “Non-Sarbanes Oxley Whistleblower Protection” presented to 12th Annual ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Conference, San Francisco, California, 2018-11-07.
• “The Unequal Web of Whistleblower Protections” to XI Encuentro International de Abogados Laboralistas y del Movimiento Sindical, March 10, 2017, Havana, Cuba. Member of National Lawyers Guild delegation to the international labor law conference.
• “Overview of Whistleblower Protection Laws” to Reining in Retaliation & Winning Whistleblower Cases, NELA’s Spring Seminar, April 8, 2016, Boston, Massachusetts.
• “The Uneven Web of Whistleblower Protection” to the Whistleblowers Summit, July 31, 2015.
• “Maintaining Ethical Grace in the Combat of Litigation,” a paper and webinar sponsored by the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), 2014-04-03.
• “Overview of Whistleblower Claims” to the Maryland Employment Lawyers Association, November 15, 2013, Columbia, Maryland.
• “Overview of Whistleblower Claims” to the American Bar Association’s 7th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference, 2013-11-09 in New Orleans.
• “Getting The Lay Of The Land: An Overview Of Whistleblower Claims” to NELA’s Fall Seminar, Shining The Light On Whistleblower & Retaliation Claims, October 18, 2013, Washington, DC. Served on Program Committee for the Seminar which drew over 150 whistleblower advocates.
• “Developments in Department of Labor Whistleblower Practice” to NELA’s 2013 Convention. 2013-06-26.
• Testified to the DC Council Committee in favor of strong remedies for wage theft, 2013-03-04.
• “NTSSA Fact Sheet” on the National Transit System Security Act for the Executive Board of Local 689 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, 2010.
• “Ethics in the Face of Evil” to the 2010 NELA Convention.
• “Sarbanes-Oxley and other federal whistleblower protections” to Ohio Employment Lawyers Association, March, 2004.
• Moderated seminar on ethics, professionalism and substance abuse for Tuscarawas County Law Library, November 28, 2001.
• “Informed Consent and the Obligation of Attorneys to Clients” for seminar in Akron, November 1, 1995.

Media Interviews:

• Interviewed for “How an Obscure Labor Board Case Threatens to Weaken Whistleblower Law,” by Marcia Coyle, published August 17, 2016, in the National Law Journal.
• Featured in “Whistle-Blower Complaint Directed at Whistle-Blower Group,” New York Times, 2015-12-02, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/business/dealbook/whistle-blower-group-found-itself-target-of-labor-complaint.html?_r=0

Pro Bono / Community Service:

• Emergency Worker Organizing Committee
• El Centro Hispano, Durham, NC