Eric Conn

Practice Areas

OSHA • Workplace Safety

Career

Eric J. Conn is a founding partner of Conn Maciel Carey LLP and Chair of the firm’s national OSHA • Workplace Safety Practice Group (http://www.connmaciel.com/osha-workplace-safety). For more than twenty years, Eric’s practice has focused exclusively on issues involving occupational safety and health regulatory and legal defense.

Before launching his own OSHA Practice, Eric practiced for more than a decade alongside the former first General Counsel of the OSH Review Commission. Eric then became Head of an OSHA practice at a large employment law firm that was honored as the “Occupational Health & Safety Law Firm of the Year” by Corporate INTL Magazine in 2014.

Professional Memberships

American Bar Association, Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee

Publications

Mr. Conn is a prolific writer on all topics OSHA related. He is the curator of Conn Maciel Carey’s award-winning OSHA Defense Report blog (https://oshadefensereport.com/), and previously edited a popular OSHA law blog at another firm. Mr. Conn has authored multiple chapters in OSHA treatises, including “OSHA Inspections” in the Occupational Safety and Health Law Handbook, 2nd ed. (Gov’t. Institutes, 2008), and “Defending Against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Increasingly Severe Enforcement Practices” in Complying with the Occupational Safety and Health Act: Leading Lawyers (Aspatore, Inside the Minds, 2012).

Mr. Conn is also a popular speaker on OSHA and related legal issues, including as the producer of Conn Maciel Carey’s annual OSHA Webinar Series, and regularly keynotes trade group and industry conferences. He is often quoted as a leader in the field in trade publications.

Personal

Mr. Conn lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife and three young children. Despite the crazy life of an OSHA defense lawyer, he coaches baseball and basketball for all of his kids. Eric is an avid University of Virginia and DC area sports fan.

He can be found on twitter as @OSHA_Guy.

Industry Sector Expertise

• Advising and representing clients in relation to inspections, investigations and enforcement actions involving the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), and state and local regulators.

• Managing the full range of litigation against OSHA, including appeals of citations, negotiations of settlements geared to minimize the impact of enforcement actions on wrongful death and personal injury civil cases, and trials before the OSH Review Commission.

• Representing employers during U.S. Attorney criminal investigations and prosecutions of alleged OSH Act criminal violations.

• Advising employers’ other attorneys in civil cases stemming from workplace accidents about the overlapping OSHA regulatory issues.

• Counseling clients through catastrophic industrial, construction, and manufacturing workplace accidents, including explosions and chemical releases.

• Developing and auditing safety programs and policies.

• Providing workplace safety training and compliance counseling for employers.

Education

Awards