FIRM HISTORY

Through its predecessors, MOC traces its genealogy as workplace experts to the 1940s and the dawn of worker rights legislation in the United States. Sam Sigal, who passed away in 1995, was one of Minnesota's first and longest practicing labor lawyers. He retired from Miller-O'Brien in 1990 after 55 years in the labor trenches. Rich Miller, who retired in 2007, began his law practice with Sam Sigal in the 1960s.

Miller's roots and influence in the labor movement were wide and deep. He was the driving force behind the longest-standing union-side labor practice in Minnesota. For four decades Miller cultivated and nurtured hundreds of labor clients in many industries, including construction, health care, property services, public utilities, maintenance, entertainment, printing, and the public sector. Rich retired as the 2007 co-recipient of the Minnesota Bar Association's Leonard Lindquist Distinguished Service Award for Labor and Employment Law.

In 1985, Miller joined forces with Bill O'Brien. Bill is responsible for expanding MOC's workplace focus into the employment rights arena. For the last 25 years, MOC has successfully represented hundreds of clients with wrongful termination, discrimination and sex harassment concerns, as well as white-collar clients in need of skilled negotiation counsel. MOC is now positioned as the go-to firm in the Twin Cities for those in need of tactical advice, counsel or litigation services regarding problems in the employment relationship.

After working in tandem with Rich and Bill for the last decade, Brendan Cummins now leads the Firm's traditional labor practice. A graduate of Yale Law School and fluent in Spanish, Brendan has worked tirelessly for worker justice, including immigrants, and strives to respond to the needs of Minnesota's changing workforce. He has done considerable volunteer work for human rights, including seven years of service on the board of the Resource Center of the Americas and active involvement with the Interfaith Center for Worker Justice since its inception.

From Sam Sigal – through Rich Miller and Bill O'Brien – to Brendan Cummins, MOC's imprint is indelible on labor's past, and central to labor's future in Minnesota. When combined with MOC's comprehensive employment law practice, the firm's labor law work rounds out the full-service character of MOC's workplace focus.