David Welch
David Welch
Class of 1981
We are pleased to announce that the Federal Labor Relations Authority has appointed David L. Welch as the FLRA’s new Chief Administrative Law Judge, pursuant to § 7105(d) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute.
Judge Welch has over forty years of public service at all three levels—Federal, State, and Local—and with all three branches—Executive, Legislative, and Judicial—of government.
He most recently served as an Administrative Law Judge with the Social Security Administration in Indianapolis, Indiana, a position to which he was appointed on January 2, 2012. He has also served as a Legislative Assistant with the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and on the personal staff of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, in Indiana and on Capitol Hill. He served as a Schedule C appointee in the Veterans Administration and on the presidential temporary transition team to the U.S. Department of Defense.
From 1991 to 2008, Judge Welch served three terms as Judge of the Monroe Circuit Court in Bloomington, Indiana, a court of general jurisdiction and record with over 95,000 dispositions of all types of Indiana cases. He served as Presiding Judge from 1998 to 1999, where he was responsible for over 100 court employees and an annual budget of over $3M. During his time on the court, of the over 62,000 original case filings and dispositions that he was involved in, only 33 were appealed. Of those 33, 70% were affirmed in whole (58%) or in part (12%). And 85% of his appealed decisions have been published.
Further, Judge Welch served as an Administrative Law Judge of the Indiana Department of Family and Social Services, as Legislative Assistant of the Indiana House of Representatives and as an Assistant General Counsel to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. He also served as Town Attorney and County Attorney to several Indiana local governments.
Judge Welch is a member of the Indiana Bar, the U.S. District Court of Northern and Southern Indiana, the Seventh Circuit Bar Association and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, sections on Rule of Law and Administrative and Regulatory Affairs; the National Conference of the Administrative Law Judiciary, Indiana Bar Association, Administrative Law Judiciary Section; and the Federal Administrative Law Judges Conference. Judge Welch is certified as a Civil and Domestic Relations Mediator by the Indiana Supreme Court, and he is a member of the American Institute of Mediators, Indiana Association of Mediators and the Indiana Judges Association.
In addition to his legal positions, Judge Welch served as the Director of External Relations to Washington, D.C., Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Bloomington, Indiana. And he has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and Public Policy since 1982.
Judge Welch holds a B.A. in English and Political Science from Indiana University, and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He has accumulated thirty hours of academic credit toward a Masters’ of Judicial Studies Degree, Trial Court Major at the National Judicial College, University of Nevada, Reno. And he is a retired U.S. Army Reserve officer.
Judge Welch began his duties at the FLRA on Monday, August 21, 2017.
Published 09/29/2017
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