Health & Safety

Squire Sanders lawyers have a broad range of expertise in all aspects of OSHA compliance and enforcement, including crisis management in the event of worker injuries or fatalities. Our OSHA experience has spanned a wide variety of industries, including chemicals production, propane and liquefied natural gas, petroleum, iron and steel manufacturing and others. We have provided compliance counseling and enforcement defense on all substantive aspects of OSHA regulatory requirements, including process safety management, hazard communication, employee training, personal protective equipment, lock out/tag out and hazardous waste operations. We also have extensive experience with Ohio Industrial Commission regulations and the defense of alleged violations of significant safety requirements (VSSRs). We have represented clients in numerous OSHA investigations, audits and informal conferences, and have successfully negotiated settlements of OSHA citations resulting in lower reclassification of violations and significant reductions in proposed civil penalties. We also have litigated citation appeals before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission as well as OSHA enforcement claims in federal court.

Our lawyers have defended numerous complex OSHA citations, including one of the few cases brought under OSHA's egregious penalty policy, as well as many other high-profile OSHA enforcement actions involving multiple willful violations with broad implications for labor and public relations. Due to our representation of various national clients on OSHA-related matters, we bring a national perspective to emerging OSHA initiatives and interpretations likely to have corporate-wide or precedent-setting impact. Our extensive environmental expertise has allowed us to assist clients in developing and implementing risk management plans under Section 112r of the Clean Air Act. We also have a depth of experience assisting clients with development of new safety approaches following multiple accidents or major events under strict protocols to protect confidentiality and preserve legal privileges. In addition, we have successfully defended employer intentional tort claims following such events.

Squire Sanders lawyers also have extensive expertise in crisis management following catastrophic events or accidents involving worker injuries or fatalities, including initial on-scene management, release reporting, coordination with emergency responders, initial witness interviews, interfacing with regulatory agency investigators, evidence gathering and preservation, protection of confidentiality and company legal privileges, and media relations counseling. We have assisted clients in coordinated management of such incidents, including on-scene management of a fatal explosion and fire at a propane terminal and a vacuum dryer explosion at a large chemical and plastics manufacturer resulting in worker injuries. We also have experience working with and directing forensic engineers and accident reconstruction experts. Our wide-ranging capabilities enable us to efficiently assist clients from the initial stages of crisis response all the way through negotiation and appeal of OSHA and VSSR citations and the defense of resulting civil claims.