Seth A. Thompson

Seth maintains a labor and employment law practice in our Bismarck office.  As a management-side labor attorney, Seth helps employers with all facets of labor relations, from serving as chief negotiator for approximately 70 collective bargaining agreements to responding to grievances, election petitions, and unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board.  He arbitrates labor disputes and provides employers with practical advice and counsel to navigate labor relations issues.  Seth also helps various North Dakota school districts manage their collective bargaining relationships with teachers’ unions.

Seth has been a Master Electrician since 2003. While working as an electrician, Seth attended night and weekend classes for three years to obtain his bachelor’s degree. Always up for a challenge, he then took night classes to earn a master’s degree in management with an emphasis in human resource management.

Seth then spent four years working for a labor union, where he negotiated collective bargaining agreements and handled arbitrations and mediations. He was the head elected official of the 900-member organization for two years and served as a trustee on four Taft Hartley benefit plans. During this time, Seth was also an arbitrator on the nation’s oldest dispute resolution panel in the construction industry, the IBEW/NECA Council on Industrial Relations, in Washington, D.C.

After managing the labor union, Seth attended law school, graduating with distinction from the University of Minnesota School of Law. He was elected to the Order of the Coif and graduated with an emphasis in labor and employment law. During law school, Seth served as the Editor-in-Chief of the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law and received the ABA-BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Labor and Employment Law. He also clerked for a public-sector labor union and Region 18 of the National Labor Relations Board.

After law school, Seth served as a law clerk to Justice Carol Ronning Kapsner of the North Dakota Supreme Court.

Seth grew up in the Lignite and Crosby area, and his wife, Anna, is originally from New Salem. In his spare time, Seth enjoys riding his Harley, golfing, hunting, and spending time with his wife, Anna, and twins, Ruby and Jack.

Honors and Distinctions

• “The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch,” in Labor and Employment Law – Management, Woodward/White, 2021
• “The Best Lawyers in America; Ones to Watch,” In Construction Law and Labor and Employment Law – Management Woodward/White, 2024
• “The Best Lawyers in America; Ones to Watch, In Construction Law and Labor and Employment Law – Management and, Litigation – Labor and Employment Law, Woodward/White, 2026 
• Great Plains Super Lawyers®, Thomson/Reuters (2024-2026)
• Great Plains Rising Stars, Thomson/Reuters, (2015 – 2021, 2023)

Presentations

• Vogel Law Firm Employment Law Seminar, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2024, and 2026
• Sterling Educational Services (Labor Law), 2015
• Sterling Educational Services (Construction Law), 2015

Community Involvement

• Court Facilities Improvement Advisory Committee
• Mentor in the Judicial and Lawyer Assistance Program (“JLAP”)

Admitted to Practice

• Minnesota
• U.S. District Court District of Minnesota
• U.S. District Court District of North Dakota
• North Dakota
• U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit