On Wednesday, June 8, 2022, Lindsay A. DiSalvo, Micah Smith and Dan Deacon presented a webinar regarding Evacuating the Workplace: Exit Routes and Exit Doors.

Evacuating the workplace during an emergency is critical. However, consistently maintaining compliant exit access, routes, and doors in a busy workplace is often challenging, especially in warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and retail settings. OSHA routinely cites egress violations as Serious because of the potential for injury or death. It is an easy violation for inspectors to identify during on-site inspections, which often leads to the issuance of costly Repeat or Willful citations.

Temporary or permanent storage of materials can create several compliance issues related to OSHA’s egress requirements, but there are several ways to maintain compliant exit routes and doors and ensure that they are always accessible. Identifying and maintaining egress routes and exits is an important element of a workplace’s emergency action plan. Employers should carefully develop emergency action plans and ensure employees understand not only how to evacuate the workplace during an emergency but how to maintain proper egress routes and exits throughout their work shifts, as it provides employees with a safer workplace and may even save lives.

Participants in this webinar learned about: Continue reading →

Mikel Smith Koon is Conn Maciel Carey LLP’s first Chief Operating Officer. She brings over 20 years of experience in business management, including 10 years in law firm management, focusing on operations and human resources.

As the COO, Ms. Koon manages CMC’s day-to-day operational efficiency by identifying key procedural issues. She crafts core processes to improve essential business functions that align with the firm’s objectives. She also oversees the administrative divisions of the firm—marketing, accounting, IT, and human resources. As part of the firm’s leadership team, she works directly with the Managing Partners, playing a pivotal role in developing and executing CMC’s strategic plan as the firm continues to expand.

Ms. Koon has an entrepreneurial spirit with special expertise in project and people management. Prior to joining the legal industry, she founded and ran a consulting firm, Mosaik Strategies, for 16 years. Here she was dedicated to coaching small business and nonprofit leaders to establish growth initiatives and build strategic relationships to achieve greater success.

In her spare time, Mikel enjoys running, and she practices Jhoon Rhee-style Tae Kwon Do. She and her husband have two daughters.

Get to Know Mikel!

Where is your favorite vacation spot?  

Any place on a warm beach! For short breaks, I love Cape May, New Jersey. For longer vacations, OBX. If money is no object, Hawaii.

What was your first job?  

A sales clerk at Patterson Silks Fabrics when I was 16. This was Continue reading →

By Megan S. Shaked

Now that Cal/OSHA’s Third Readoption of the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard is in effect, the agency has updated its Frequently Asked Questions to reflect those revisions effective May 6, 2022.  (See our previous blog articles regarding the revisions in the Third Readoption and the Board vote to approve the readoption.)

Many of the updated FAQs simply reflect the revised ETS language itself, for example, removing references to vaccination status as the ETS requirements are no longer dependent on such status.  The FAQs have also been updated to reflect the current terminology used in the Third Readoption, for example, using “infections period” instead of “high risk exposure period.”

However, some of the updated Frequently Asked Questions provide added clarity regarding the current requirements: Continue reading →

Aaron R. Gelb is a partner and head of Conn Maciel Carey LLP’s Chicago office where he leads the firm’s Midwest OSHA workplace safety practice. He has more than 25 years’ experience advising and representing clients in relation to inspections, investigations, and enforcement actions involving federal OSHA and state OSH programs and managing the full range of litigation against OSHA.  In support of the firm’s Labor and Employment practice, Aaron defends employers in equal employment opportunity matters in federal and state courts, having tried multiple cases to verdict and obtained the dismissal of more than 300 discrimination charges before the EEOC and fair employment agencies nationwide.

Aaron is frequently asked to speak at conferences, seminars, and industry-specific forums, covering numerous workplace safety and employment topics for events and organizations nationwide including the American Bar Association, the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, the American Trucking Associations, and the Chicagoland Safety Conference to name a few. Aaron currently leads the Illinois Manufacturers Association’s workplace safety and health education series which includes quarterly webinars and 4 programs during each week of June, which is safety month.  Aaron also helps curate the firm’s annual webinar series – the OSHA Webinar Series and the Labor and Employment Webinar Series and is a frequent contributor to CMC’s blogs – the OSHA Defense Report and the Employer Defense Report.

In addition to his legal practice, Aaron works closely with CMC’s founding partners to help them realize their vision for the firm’s future, acts as a mentor to new partners and associates, actively recruits lateral partner and associate candidates, and helps craft the firm’s strategic marketing plan, including the firm’s social media efforts. Passionate about ensuring equal access to justice for all, Aaron is an active member of the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is a frequent participant in the Northern District of Illinois’ Settlement Assistance Program in which he presents pro se litigants in court-led settlement conferences.  At the height of the pandemic, Aaron served as a panelist during a program focused on compliance and legal concerns facing Black-owned small businesses struggling to survive in the face of COVID-19.

Get to Know Aaron! Continue reading →

On Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 1 p.m. ET, join Andrew J. Sommer and Lindsay A. DiSalvo for a webinar regarding Religious and Disability Accommodations in Response to COVID-19 Mandates.

Employee requests for medical and/or religious accommodations in the workplace are not new. However, never before have these accommodation requests been such a hot-button topic, nor have these accommodation requests been used so frequently (and in particular, religious accommodation requests). The imposition of COVID-19 vaccine mandates has changed that, particularly with regard to religious accommodation requests, which has become the ultimate “gray area,” as both employers and employees alike have learned that sincerely held religious belief can include an employee’s religious-based objection to vaccinations. As a result, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has issued guidance regarding the obligations of employers under Title VII when an employee presents with a religious objection to a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, which actually builds upon prior EEOC guidance regarding COVID-19 vaccinations in the employment context. Thus, there are multiple issues that employers need to keep in mind and juggle when addressing these vaccination accommodation requests.

Participants in this webinar will learn how to best deal with such requests by their employees, including: Continue reading →

Conn Maciel Carey LLP, a boutique law firm with national practices in labor and employment, workplace safety (OSHA and MSHA), and litigation, welcomes Mikel Smith Koon in the new position of Chief Operating Officer.

Ms. Koon brings over 20 years of experience in business management, working with both large corporations and small businesses. For 15 of those years, she ran her own consulting firm, using her expertise in project and people management to service her clients. As Conn Maciel Carey’s COO, she manages essential business processes, ensuring the efficiency of the firm’s business functions. More importantly, she fills a new role made necessary by the firm’s significant growth.

“Being a relatively young firm,” says Eric Conn, Chair of the firm’s OSHA Practice, “we’ve graduated from a startup to an established, national firm. We’ve tripled in size. So, we need someone with the talent, experience and savvy to manage the firm’s growingly complex operations.”

As part of the leadership team, she works directly with the Managing Partners to develop and implement the firm’s strategic plan to elevate CMC to the next level. Continue reading →

Black History Month is a time to recognize the contributions of Black Americans throughout U.S. history.  As the month comes to a close, Conn Maciel Carey Partner, Aaron Gelb, reflects on African American mentors and peers who have impacted his life both personally and professionally.

I’ve been fortunate during my life and career to have been influenced and shaped by several African American mentors, friends, and colleagues.  Starting at the beginning, my godfather, Sidney Bertrand, had a big influence on me as I remember spending time with him and his wife, Zelda, at their apartment on 125^th Street in Harlem as a young kid, having sleepovers, etc.  Although Sidney succumbed to cancer at a relatively young age, his efforts in the face of adversity taught me a lot.

When I was in college at the University of Chicago, I worked as a teaching assistant to Continue reading →

Conn Maciel Carey LLP, a boutique law firm with national practices in labor and employment, workplace safety (OSHA and MSHA), and litigation, is pleased to announce that Lindsay DiSalvo has been promoted to Partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office.

Ms. DiSalvo defends employers in OSHA inspections, investigations, and litigation. She also represents and advises employers in all phases of the employer-employee relationship. Ms. DiSalvo was the firm’s very first Associate, joining the firm the day it was founded in 2014.

“She has been a backbone of the firm since we launched,” says Eric Conn, a co-founding partner and Chair of the firm’s national OSHA Practice. “I am excited to finally call her my Partner. She has grown into one of the finest OSHA lawyers in the country.”

“I have been working toward this my entire career,” Ms. DiSalvo says. “It is particularly exciting to be chosen by people I have been working with since the beginning. I feel like I helped build this firm, and now I am a Partner. I feel honored.”

Mr. Conn adds, “As a specialty boutique firm, what sets us apart is the mastery of the nuance of the practices for which we are known – workplace safety and employment law.  Ms. DiSalvo Continue reading →