Melissa litigates significant OSHA enforcement matters and also represents many employers during OSHA inspections that followed fatalities or catastrophes.  Her experience includes the following:

• OSHA cited a large employer engaged in trimming trees and vegetation around electrical lines for a violation of the Logging standard.  The inspection resulted from an employee fatality.  The company argued that the standard was inapplicable.  After significant discovery, including multiple depositions, OSHA withdrew all citation items.

• Tennessee OSHA cited a chemical manufacturing facility for multiple violations of its Process Safety Management standard after an explosion resulted in an employee fatality.  Based on additional facts presented during discovery, the government withdrew all but one of the citations.

• OSHA conducted an audit of three years of injury and illness data, including OSHA 300 Logs and associated documents, for a large oil field servicing company.  Although OSHA did issue citations, the company was very pro-active throughout the investigation, and as a result, liability was minimized.

• OSHA cited an electric utility for multiple violations following an accident that resulted in two fatalities.  After extensive discovery and settlement negotiations, OSHA withdrew most of the citation items and cut the penalty by almost 50 percent.

• After an explosion that resulted in national news coverage, OSHA inspected an employer that provided industrial gases to customers. The company actively asserted its defenses during the inspection, and OSHA did not issue any citations.

Melissa has conducted accident investigations and root cause analyses under attorney-client privilege. She has also assisted clients in conducting complex industrial hygiene investigations, including two corporate-wide assessments of the risks of exposures to lead, cadmium and other health hazards.