The Law Department is one of the oldest, continuous departments in the organization. The materials in this series include Law Department publications, briefs, opinions, related correspondence, reports, and court documents. The series is divided into four subseries: Court cases, Subject files, Internal files, and Publications.

The Court cases subseries includes amicus briefs that NAM filed and paperwork related to them, cases before the National Labor Relations Board, and cases NAM had an interest in or was involved with. The court cases deal with numerous topics and issues. Some of these topics include: Americans with Disabilities Act, anti-trust, Civil Rights Act, discrimination, ergonomics, intellectual property, lobbying, lockout-tagout, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), occupational exposure, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, product liability, punitive damages, strikes, and women in the workforce (including maternity and family leave).

The Subject files subseries contain files maintained by the Law Department on a wide variety of topics and likely used as reference. Several of the subject files have information that would be relevant to various court cases, but the files do not pertain to a specific case, rather the issue at large. Several subjects are included, with major issues being Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, anti-trust, Civil Rights Act of 1990, ergonomics, exportation, labor law, lobbying, lockout-tagout, Taft-Hartley Act, trade commissions, and various federal agencies and programs. Correspondence with the International Labor Organization describes NAM’s relationship with this international body as well as efforts to align it with conservative non-Communist labor unions.

The Internal files subseries includes material created and used internally along with lobbying reports filed as mandated. The files were for internal use and document the daily work of the general counsel’s office. The subseries includes business activity reports (which were used for Board of Directors’ meetings and annual reports), contracts that NAM entered, programs and policies that NAM considered and enacted, and trademarks NAM held, among many other topics.

A significant portion of the Internal files are chronological files by name, correspondence sent to the general counsel’s office, and reader or reading files created by lawyers in the Law Department. These are arranged chronologically and include inter-office memos, copies of correspondence, and occasionally copies of testimonies before the U.S. House or Senate.

Several files in the Internal subseries relate to SAFESystem. In the mid-1980s, the SAFESystem (Standardized Accident Frequency and Evaluation System) program was developed for NAM to compile accident reports across several manufacturing sectors. Information included company, name of injured, occupation, nature, severity, and description of injury or illness, accident description, property damage or product loss, and accident analysis. The data was then coded and compiled by NAM from companies to give a more complete picture across the different manufacturing industries, with emphasis on the chemical industry.

The Publications subseries contains publications created by the Law Department for distribution. There are two types of publications: Law Department memos (1943-1976) and NAM Law Digest (1937-1954). The NAM Law Digest was originally issued monthly — it switched to quarterly in March 1941 — from September to June for the purpose of bringing to the members prompt information concerning significant court and administrative decisions, legislation, and related matters.