Sidley’s Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) practice covers all matters before the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA). With two Chambers-ranked OSHA lawyers — including one of the few Band One ranked lawyers in the country — the team litigates the most challenging and impactful OSHA violations on behalf of our clients. Sidley’s OSHA team covers the entire country, spanning the wide array of federal OSHA and its many state plans. Our team has handled nearly every aspect of OSHA enforcement defense and compliance counseling, including incidents involving explosions, large chemical releases, and multiple employee fatalities.
How We Add Value
Crisis Management & Onsite Inspections. Following a workplace incident, the team swiftly launches crisis response protocols. We handle all initial reporting obligations. If OSHA initiates an onsite inspection, we can immediately take over to help ensure that our clients do not waive key rights while putting themselves in the best position to limit risk. We navigate search warrants, subpoenas, and voluntary document and witness interview requests. We conduct our own privileged internal investigations and help craft communications related to the incident to employees, unions, and other stakeholders.
Litigation & Appeals. If citations are issued, the team defends our clients in the ensuing litigation, from initial discovery to trials and appeals before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and state and federal courts of appeal. With our decade-long relationships with OSHA officials at the federal and state levels, the team is well positioned to negotiate from a position of mutual respect, where settlements are preferred. When a palatable resolution is infeasible, the team is comprised of seasoned trial lawyers with extensive experience trying matters in administrative hearings. Their proven track record of success at trial has saved employers from countless citations, avoiding the far-reaching business implications and public stigma connected with affirmed citations.
Regulatory Compliance. Beyond litigation, Sidley’s OSHA team works closely with employers to develop and strengthen their safety and health compliance programs. We believe that safety and health policies must be interwoven into the fabric of your operations — and that this can only happen with a legal team that understands the practical realities and hurdles that businesses face. We share our clients’ core safety and health values. We advise on how to avoid OSHA legal risk from a regulatory standpoint; more importantly, however, we advise on best practices in light of those risks based on our decades of occupational safety and health experience.
Among other areas of focus, our team is well versed in Process Safety Management (PSM). We are able to leverage our broader team’s tactical experience in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement of Risk Management Programs (RMP) regulations — so that clients are fully covered under these overlapping enforcement regimes.
Navigating OSHA Rulemaking. Our team has vital experience with OSHA rulemaking and new policy initiatives. We help employers and some of the nation’s most influential trade groups dissect and submit comments to newly proposed rules. Our lawyers previously have challenged OSHA’s rulemaking authority in court on statutory and constitutional grounds, leading to a highly favorable settlement for our client and the thousands of businesses nationwide who benefited from the suit. As members of Sidley’s groundbreaking Regulatory Litigation practice, we can call upon our full arsenal of regulatory litigators to challenge new rules or policies whenever needed.
Due Diligence Reviews. Our lawyers take on the critical role of assessing any potential liabilities during M&A, investments, or internal audits to ensure regulatory compliance. We assist clients in ascertaining vital documentation to aid in effective due diligence, including: reviewing the status of OSHA compliance programs, inspection history, illness and injury records, training and safety programs, workplace conditions, employee complaints and whistleblower issues, litigation and workers’ compensation claims, and corrective actions and improvement plans.
Related Agencies. Sidley’s team has extensive experience navigating enforcement actions and counseling brought by OSHA’s sister agencies. In addition to EPA, this includes the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the Department of Transportation (DOT). Our ranks include the former chief counsel at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the primary regulator of the U.S. automotive industry.
