August 2007: This month, Chapter 293 Works interviewed James Fay, an NTEU member who works as an enforcement attorney in the Boston Regional Office. James was born outside of Boston, but grew up in Florida. He received a BA and an MA in history from Providence College, and he considered pursuing an academic career in history. He ultimately received a JD from Boston College Law School and became an attorney.

James spent the first several years of his legal career working in the private sector, becoming a partner at the Boston law firm of Morrison, Mahoney, where he worked as a litigator. He commenced his service at the SEC as an enforcement attorney in 1998. “I’ve always had a strong interest in public service,” he noted, “and that is the primary reason why I left my firm to work for the SEC.”

James spent seven years in the Enforcement Division in Washington, where he worked on a number of securities fraud investigations. When asked about his experience at Headquarters, James noted that “I was fortunate to have worked with a good group of people in D.C. Jim Coffman and Roger Paszamant were great to work for and our group was cohesive, getting along very well. It was a great setting in which to learn the ropes. They are real smart guys, know the securities laws inside and out, and they knew how to conduct an investigation. And they really respected the staff level folks; a work-life balance was important to them – more than just an empty expression. It was a great environment.”

James handled the Golden Bear Golf accounting fraud case while in Washington. The high point of James’ experience at Headquarters was his stint as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. In that capacity, he worked for almost three years on a number of securities fraud prosecutions, including the criminal prosecution of the Golden Bear case. He greatly enjoyed the fast pace of the criminal work, and he found the entire process, including the characters involved, to be extremely interesting. During his tenure as a SAUSA, he was able to obtain the first and only criminal conviction for market timing and late trading in the Geek Securities, Inc. matter. James led several criminal investigations, which in total resulted in seven convictions.

In 2005, James transferred to the Boston Regional Office to be closer to his extended family. In Boston, James has continued to work in Enforcement and just led the John Hancock revenue sharing investigation.

James became a member of NTEU because he decided that supporting the union’s work was the right thing to do. “I came to the conclusion that I was getting direct benefits from the union and from its activities and representation, but I wasn’t contributing to it financially. I felt that it wasn’t appropriate for me to derive all the benefits without directly supporting the union.” James came to this conclusion after the union came to the SEC. “I was here before the union fought for pay parity. To me, it’s amazing that anyone working at the SEC could hold the view that the union has not done extraordinary things to improve the quality of our work life and benefits. Our work life is vastly superior now to the way it was prior to the union, and I think that it is important to continue to support that.”

James also serves as a steward in Boston. “I became a steward because I wanted to support the chapter’s current leadership and what they are trying to accomplish at the SEC,” he said. He also noted that “I think that it is important to have people who are available and accessible to the employees throughout the agency’s offices. A week doesn’t go by where somebody doesn’t come in to talk to me about something that they need to resolve or just talk over.”

James favors utilizing a constructive approach when dealing with management. He also believes, however, that the union offers employees a stronger voice within the agency than any single employee could ever have on his or her own. "I believe that having the union behind us in a heavily bureaucratic institution like the SEC is critical to preserve a satisfactory quality of our work lives,” he said. “When I speak to management, I don’t speak with just one voice. In Boston we have 90% membership, and there is no question that it has had a positive impact upon our ability to work with management.” He went on to note, “That is why I think that everyone should join NTEU – we are all getting benefits and we all need to help support the folks who are working to improve the quality of our work lives. Numbers are critical because they permit the union to deal with management from a position of greater strength. This has already reaped benefits, and increased membership will reap increased benefits.”

James lives minutes from Narragansett Bay near Providence with his wife and their three sons, aged 2, 4 and 6. He spends all of his spare time with his family. Their activities include biking, kayaking and frequent visits to the Bay. James and his wife are active in his parish and in his children’s school. Although James is an avid golfer and custom golf clubmaker most of his time these days goes to renovating his family’s home.