Additions to Leadership Team to Raise Profile, Drive Growth, Deepen Bench, Expand Caseload

SPARTANBURG, S.C., JANUARY 20, 2023 — The Center for Independent Employees (CIE) announces it has launched an effort to expand in 2023. The effort includes new additions to its executive team and a growth strategy with new public outreach efforts.

The announcement comes following the hiring of Peter Reichard as Vice President of Development on December 1. Reichard will lead efforts to expand CIE’s capacity. Before joining CIE on December 1, Reichard served as President of the Utah Foundation (from July 2017 through November 2022). There, he led the nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy group to unprecedented productivity and financial strength. Prior to that position, Reichard served as Director of Research at the Bureau of Governmental Research in New Orleans, where he spent 15 years fighting government corruption, mismanagement, and waste. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he served in editorial roles at a major daily newspaper and at a business weekly. 

Reichard joins two other recent additions to the leadership team. In spring 2022, Keith Williams joined CIE as Senior Vice President. As a public high school teacher and coach for over 20 years, Williams led the only successful school district in Pennsylvania to overturn union fair share fees before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision. He also successfully sued the union to end ghost teaching practices and provided valuable testimony in support of employee rights legislation. He was recruited from the classroom to lead and grow a now nationally recognized nonprofit, where he headed the successful decertification of an AFL-CIO affiliated union in a Pittsburgh-area school district. As a direct result of Keith’s work, Pennsylvania’s largest unions were forced to drop maintenance of membership windows from state contracts, freeing over 50,000 state workers and serving as a testament to the power of authentic relationships and effective coalition-building. Williams is spearheading CIE’s growing efforts to liberate America’s teachers from national unions.

Also in the spring, Patrick Cont joined CIE as Assistant General Counsel. Cont is based in South Carolina, where he has practiced law since 1991. He brings decades of expertise in traditional labor law. He has served as a partner with both Edwards, Ballard, P.A., and Sturm & Cont, P.A.

CIE began 2023 with the launch of a new branding campaign, complete with a new logo and website.

CIE leadership recruited Williams, Cont, and Reichard to bolster CIE’s robust ground game, bring greater depth in the core legal team, and put a laser focus on strategic action for expansion. “After two decades of building an unparalleled track record of success behind the scenes, in 2023 we’re moving into a more public-facing growth mode,” said CIE Founder and General Counsel James Edwards. “Our new recruits will help lead the charge.”  

President Russ Brown pointed out that a widening pool of independent employees need CIE assistance. “Our plans to expand our capacity means we will help far more independent employees and vastly expand our impact,” Brown said. “Our coast-to-coast network of hundreds of labor lawyers and paralegals stands ready for deployment.”

The Center for Independent Employees (CIE) is a 501(c)(3) legal defense foundation that provides legal representation and aid to independent employees who are opposed to union oppression in their workplaces.