Eric J. Conn is a founding partner of Conn Maciel Carey and Chair of the firm’s national OSHA • Workplace Safety Practice Group. His practice focuses exclusively on issues involving occupational safety and health law.  Before launching his own OSHA Practice, Mr. Conn practiced for more than a decade alongside the former first General Counsel of the OSH Review Commission.

 

Mr. Conn and his OSHA Team at Conn Maciel Carey develop safety and health regulatory strategies for employers across all industries with a particular emphasis in:

 

• 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.

 

Mr. Conn is extremely proud to have presided over Conn Maciel Carey’s national OSHA Practice when it was recognized as one of only three “Band 1” Rated OSHA Law Firms by Chambers USA in 2022 (the first year that Chambers ranked the OSHA Law category).  In that same ranking, Eric was individually recognized as one of only nine Band 1 rated OSHA law practitioners nationwide.  Prior to that, Mr. Conn was Head of an OSHA Practice at a prior firm that was honored as the “Occupational Health & Safety Law Firm of the Year” by Corporate INTL Magazine in its 2014 Global Awards.  In 2013 and 2014, he was named a “Rising Star” by Washington, DC Super Lawyers, and as a Super Lawyer every year since. He has also been selected for inclusion in the Washington Post’s Top-Rated Lawyers list in Washington, DC.

 

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, 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 regular keynotes trade group and industry

conferences.  He is often quoted as a leader in the field in trade publications.

 

Mr. Conn created and curates the OSHA Defense Report Group on LinkedIn, and can be found on

twitter as @OSHA_Guy.

 

Mr. Conn lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife and two young children.