On Jan. 9, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard oral argument in BHC Nw. Psychiatric Hosp. LLC v. Sec’y of Labor, a case that asks the court to decide how far the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) can go when directing a hospital to put in place measures to protect nurses and other staff members from patient attacks.

The hospital appealed to the D.C. Circuit, challenging an order from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (Commission), in which Chief Judge Covette Rooney found that the hospital breached the OSHA general duty clause because (1) its measures for addressing patient on staff violence were insufficient, and (2) the hospital had not taken feasible measures to materially reduce the recognized hazard.

Click here to read the full GT Alert, “D.C. Circuit to Take on OSHA Authority to Regulate Workplace Violence.”

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Genus Heidary

Genus Heidary focuses much of her practice on environmental, health, and safety-related matters, providing both proactive compliance counseling, as well as strategic advocacy at times of enforcement litigation. She has comprehensive experience counseling clients through major industrial accidents, workplace fatalities, agency inspections, and

Genus Heidary focuses much of her practice on environmental, health, and safety-related matters, providing both proactive compliance counseling, as well as strategic advocacy at times of enforcement litigation. She has comprehensive experience counseling clients through major industrial accidents, workplace fatalities, agency inspections, and crisis management at times of potential toxic releases. Genus works with technical experts and auditors, providing compliance counseling in relation to the development and improvement of environmental, health, and safety programs. Much of this work requires her to take the lead on internal investigations to evaluate litigation risk, as well as compliance readiness. Her portfolio also includes due diligence risk assessments of commercial deal work.

With a background in public policy and years of courtroom experience as a litigator, Genus also represents clients from a broad array of industries – including manufacturing, health care, technology, energy, real estate, and financial services – in challenges to agency rule-makings, supervisory investigations, complex litigation, and class action lawsuits, as well as civil and criminal enforcement actions brought by federal and state regulatory agencies, state attorneys general, and the Department of Justice (DOJ).  Such experience has allowed her to represent clients before agencies including the Department of Labor (DOL), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Federal Reserve Board, or related state agencies.

Photo of Michael T. Taylor Michael T. Taylor

Michael Taylor is Chair of the Greenberg Traurig OSHA Practice group. Michael focuses his nationwide practice exclusively on representing employers regarding workplace safety and health matters. Over the last two decades, Michael has represented hundreds of employers during federal and state workplace safety…

Michael Taylor is Chair of the Greenberg Traurig OSHA Practice group. Michael focuses his nationwide practice exclusively on representing employers regarding workplace safety and health matters. Over the last two decades, Michael has represented hundreds of employers during federal and state workplace safety and health litigation, many of which involved a significant injury, fatality, fire, explosion, or catastrophic release of a highly hazardous substance in the workplace. Michael also provides federal and state workplace safety and health compliance counseling, inspection counseling, whistleblower representation, and due diligence reviews for clients. Michael also represents employers regarding Chemical Safety Board investigations in response to a significant fire, explosion, or catastrophic release of a highly hazardous substance in the workplace. Michael has significant experience in the oil, gas, electric utility, grain, construction, and chemical manufacturing industries.

Michael previously served as General Counsel to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the agency in charge of adjudicating workplace safety and health disputes between federal OSHA and the regulated community.

Michael is the Founder and Host of the Greenberg Traurig Workplace Safety Review Podcast, where he interviews influential environmental, health, and safety professionals across the country regarding timely and important topics in the environmental, health and safety world. Recent guests have included Douglas Parker, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health in the Biden Administration; Deborah Harris, Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section; John Howard, Director of NIOSH and Administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service; Nadine Mancini, General Counsel of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission; and Richard Fairfax, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for federal OSHA.

In 2020, Michael was recognized as a “Labor & Employment Star” in the Benchmark Litigation Labor & Employment rankings, and, in 2013, EHS Today named Michael as one of the Top 50 People Who Most Influenced Environmental, Health, and Safety.