Dennis J. Morikawa is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Labor and Employment Practice, where he heads the Occupational Safety and Health Law Practice. He represents management regarding labor and employment law issues, focusing on matters arising under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Mine Safety and Health Act. He is actively involved in counseling clients in the development and implementation of safety and health policies and strategic plans throughout the United States and Europe, and he has represented companies and trade associations in connection with rulemaking related to proposed OSHA Standards. The OSHA practice group provides in-depth assistance to companies in evaluating their OSHA compliance status, including on-site auditing of compliance issues and providing corporate due diligence reviews in mergers and acquisitions. The group also has assisted many companies with respect to OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and Strategic Partnerships for Safety. Mr. Morikawa and other members of his practice group also work closely with the firm's Litigation Practice in evaluating the third-party tort and criminal implications of OSHA citations and investigations.
Mr. Morikawa counsels clients in a variety of labor and employment-related issues, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Age Discrimination in Employment Act. He also provides counseling and litigation support for claims involving alleged whistleblower claims by employees under § 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Mr. Morikawa has represented companies with respect to OSHA matters in industries such as chemical, healthcare, construction, refining, meatpacking, supermarkets, steel, retail department stores, manufacturing, distilleries, trucking, breweries, restaurants, battery makers, quarries, aviation, shipbuilding, shipping, and railroads. He has advised clients regarding proposed rulemaking by OSHA in areas such as ergonomics, lead, longshoring, steel erection, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and recordkeeping. He also has represented companies with respect to a wide variety of situations involving OSHA inspections and inspection priorities, including OSHA's National Emphasis Program (NEP) on oil refineries and the litigation of citations issued under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and Mine Safety and Health Act. A number of these cases have resulted in significant changes in OSHA law. For example, in the matter titled Secretary of Labor v. Akzo Nobel Chemicals Inc., the company successfully litigated against OSHA with respect to the issue of what constitutes a 'covered process' under OSHA's Process Safety Management Standard.
Mr. Morikawa has represented companies in virtually all OSHA Regions throughout the United States and all OSHA State Plan States. He also has represented companies before Administrative Law Judges, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the United States Courts of Appeals, and State Courts throughout the country in connection with OSHA-related matters. Mr. Morikawa also has testified before the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Mr. Morikawa is past management co-chair of the Committee on Occupational Safety and Health Law of the American Bar Association. He has spoken frequently before client groups, trade associations, and the American Bar Association on issues related to OSHA. Mr. Morikawa also has served as a U.S. Delegate, designated by the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, to participate in the 2007 US/EU International Conference on Safety at Work, held in Cascais, Portugal.
In 1991, he successfully argued before the Supreme Court of the United States in Consolidated Rail Corporation v. Railway Labor Executives' Association, with respect to the implementation of drug testing programs as part of medical examinations in the railroad industry.
In 1996, he worked with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Atlanta Organizing Committee (ACOG), with respect to the drug testing of athletes at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mr. Morikawa is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
