Rachel Conn

Practice Areas

Cal/OSHA

OSHA & Workplace Safety

Audits & Internal Investigations

Whistleblower / Retaliation

Workplace Violence Prevention

Career

Rachel L. Conn is the Chair of Conn Maciel Carey’s California Practice. She is based out of the firm’s San Francisco office.

Rachel’s practice has a special focus on Occupational Safety and Health compliance and litigation, including inspections, investigations and enforcement actions involving Cal/OSHA, Federal OSHA, and other State OSH Plans.

Prior to joining Conn Maciel Carey, Rachel was a Partner at Nixon Peabody, where she led the firm’s national Occupational Safety and Health Practice. She developed state of the art safety procedures, conducted or directed OSH-related training and compliance audits, managed and litigated appeals of citations, and represented employers and trade associations in Cal/OSHA and federal OSHA rulemakings.

In addition to her OSHA-focused practice, Rachel also leverages a wide-range of skills from traditional labor law and employment law, including representing, advising and training clients in various areas such as wrongful termination, employment discrimination and harassment, arbitrations, ADA Title III access, trade secrets, and restrictive covenants and wage-hour.

In June 2026, Rachel was appointed to the California Lawyers Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section Executive Committee, a leadership body within one of the state’s largest legal organizations, representing more than 45,000 members. Notably, she is the first workplace safety and health attorney selected for this role, further highlighting her distinctive practice.

Professional Memberships

California Lawyers Association (CLA), Labor and Employment Executive Committee

California League of Food Producers (CLFP)

California Manufacturers & Technology Association (CMTA)

American Bar Association (ABA), Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee

Association of Threat Assessment Professionals-Northern California Chapter

Experience

Rachel has extensive experience working with employers on some of the most novel and complex OSHA and Cal/OSHA issues, including:

- Litigated California’s first COVID-19 citations (under new and novel legal theories) under the Cal/OSHA Aerosol Transmissible Disease standard on behalf of a leading health care system.

- Designed and implemented global technology company’s Workplace Violence Prevention and Response program to identify and mitigate risk of violence, harm, and disruption to the workplace.

- Represented utility company in defending against Cal/OSHA citations related to one of the country’s largest natural gas leaks, including complex jurisdictional issues.

- Drafted employer and trade association comments to various Cal/OSHA proposed regulations including Wildfire Smoke Prevention, Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare, COVID-19 Prevention, and Workplace Violence in General Industry.

- Represented waste management company during district attorney investigation and prosecution of alleged safety violations under the California Business and Professions Code Section 17200.

- On behalf of a main insurance company, audited and developed safety program for lone workers in the field.

- Managed hundreds of on-site inspections, including intensive site inspection for large winery related to confined spaces, lockout/tagout, HazWoper, and HazCom.

- Represented and counseled employers through the Cal/OSHA Bureau of Investigation (BOI) process.

- Defended employers in Serious and Willful petitions before the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.

- Obtained workplace violence prevention temporary and permanent restraining orders.

Education