Dawn L. Goldstein Named Associate General Counsel for the Division of Legal Counsel; Bobak Talebian Named Deputy Associate General Counsel for the Division of Legal Counsel

Today, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Crystal S. Carey announced the appointment of Dawn L. Goldstein as Associate General Counsel of the Division of Legal Counsel, Management and the appointment of Bobak Talebian as Deputy Associate General Counsel for the Division. In these roles, Ms. Goldstein and Mr. Talebian will oversee the NLRB’s Contempt, Compliance, and Special Litigation Branch (CCSLB), Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Branch, the E-Litigation Branch, and Privacy Counsel.

Ms. Goldstein most recently served as the Deputy Associate General Counsel for the Division, after being appointed in July 2023. She has spent most of her career employed at the Board, beginning in 2000. She previously served as the CCSLB Branch Chief, the CCSLB Deputy Branch Chief, and before that, as a supervisor and attorney in CCSLB and Special Litigation. Ms. Goldstein also spent five years at the Department of Energy’s Office of Hearings and Appeals. A native of North Miami, Florida, Ms. Goldstein graduated from the University of Florida in Gainesville with a B.A. in Political Science. She is a graduate cum laude of Boston University School of Law.

“Dawn excelled in helping to oversee the wide-ranging activities of the Division of Legal Counsel,” said General Counsel Carey. “Throughout her over 25-year tenure, she has worked tirelessly in various roles at the Agency and will continue to serve us exceedingly well as she assumes her new role, overseeing the Division of Legal Counsel.”

Bobak Talebian most recently served as the Director of the Office of Information Policy (OIP) of the United States Department of Justice, beginning in February 2020.  There, Mr. Talebian was responsible for developing policy guidance for Executive Branch agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), providing legal counsel and training to agency personnel on the procedural and substantive aspects of the Act, and for overseeing agency compliance with the law. In addition, Mr. Talebian oversaw the defense of numerous FOIA and Privacy Act matters in litigation.

Before becoming Director of OIP, Mr. Talebian served as Acting Director and Acting Chief of Staff of OIP.  Prior to these roles, Mr. Talebian served as the first Chief of OIP's FOIA Compliance Staff.  During his tenure as Chief of OIP’s FOIA Compliance Staff, Mr. Talebian’s team led a number of government-wide initiatives that improved agencies’ FOIA administration, including the development of policy guidance, new reporting guidelines, FOIA training and assessment resources, and the launch of the National FOIA Portal on FOIA.gov. At the beginning of his career, he served as an attorney-advisor for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.

Mr. Talebian is a native of Arlington, Virginia, and graduate of Kenyon College and the University of Tennessee College of Law where he served on Law Review.

“Mr. Talebian’s nationally recognized information governance expertise will tremendously benefit not only the Division of Legal Counsel but the Agency as a whole, and I am pleased that he will support the Division as we move forward,” said General Counsel Carey.