Mark S. Lyon was appointed to the Commission in March 2024 and is currently serving his first term as Chairperson.

Lyon has been practicing law in Washington with an emphasis on labor and administrative law for over 40 years. From January 2005 to December 2021, he served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington and provided litigation services and legal advice to state agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the Department of Enterprise Services, and the Consolidated Technology Services Agency. Lyon retired from the Attorney General's Office at the end of 2021.

During his last five years with the AGO, Lyon served as the primary legal representative for PERC, providing legal advice to the Commission, agency director, and primary staff. He also represented PERC in litigation in the Washington superior and appellate courts.

Between 1981 and 2004, Lyon served as the General Counsel to the Washington Public Employees Association, UFCW Local 365, where he acted as the primary legal advisor to a public employee labor union representing state and local government workers and appeared before administrative tribunals, trial courts, and appellate courts throughout Washington state.

Lyon received a Juris Doctor Degree in 1981 from the University of Puget Sound Law School (now Seattle University Law School).

His term expires in September 2026.

Professor Ford is a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Seattle University School of Law, teaching the Workers’ Rights Clinic as well as Legal Writing.

In private practice for 25 years, Prof. Ford represented unions and individual employees. She also served as Chief Counsel for the Washington State Nurses Association and the Manager of Labor Relations for King County.

In 2005, she joined the faculty fulltime as Visiting Legal Writing Professor. She continued as a Visiting Clinical Professor, establishing and teaching the law school's first Mediation Clinic. After leaving SU to serve as the Manager of Labor Relations, Professor Ford returned to continue directing the Mediation Clinic and to develop a pilot legal skills course that incorporated dispute resolution into the second-year legal writing curriculum. In 2010, Professor Ford joined the University of Washington School of Law as Assistant Dean.

Finally, in 2015, Prof. Ford founded the Fair Work Center Legal Clinic, which is a non-profit legal services office which operates in collaboration with the Peterson Law Clinic to provide representation to low wage workers.

Professor Ford serves frequently as a mediator and arbitrator primarily in labor and employment disputes. She is a member of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and Public Employment Relations Commission's panel of arbitrators.

Prof. Ford publishes in the area of workplace minimum standards, labor negotiation, and clinical teaching. Her scholarship can be found here.

She was appointed to the Commission in November 2022 and her term expires in September 2028.

Henry E. Farber was appointed to the Commission on December 19, 2024. His term expires September 8, 2029.

Farber started and is ending his 45+ years in labor relations as a labor neutral. He started his career as a Field Examiner for the National Labor Relations Board in Brooklyn, NY and in Los Angeles, CA. He is now a full-time mediator and labor arbitrator. He has been selected for the American Arbitration Association, PERC, and Montana State labor arbitration panels.

In between, Farber was an attorney in private practice at Davis Wright Tremaine in Bellevue, WA and was in-house counsel at the premier department (and departed) store of Washington, Frederick & Nelson. He represented employers in labor matters and employers and individuals in employment litigation. While in private practice, Farber was consistently recognized as a top lawyer in the labor and employment field by Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA. He spoke frequently at ABA and Washington State conferences.

Farber also taught labor law at the University of Washington School of Law, and has served on the Board of Trustees of the East King County Bar Association, the Issaquah Independent Salary Commission, and the Issaquah Civil Service Commission.
In 2014, Farber was inducted as a Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers, a nationwide organization that promotes civility in adversarial settings.

Farber received his J.D. Degree from the University of California School of Law at Berkeley, and his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations.