WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2023: Heather MacDougall, a former chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) who most recently served as worldwide vice president of workplace health and safety at Amazon, joins Morgan Lewis as part of the firm’s expansive roster of lawyers with government and in-house experience. Heather also has more than 20 years of experience representing employers throughout the United States regarding labor and employment with a focus on Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) matters. She joins as a partner in the firm’s Miami office.
“With unique credentials in global workplace safety strategies and risk mitigation, Heather will offer our clients creative, strategic advice at a time of heightened attention on workplace issues,” said Firm Chair Jami McKeon. “Her experience in overseeing a high-level corporate safety team empowers her to guide our clients on the best course of action in developing and assessing corporate safety programs. Her time at the helm of a federal agency charged with OSHA inspections and citations gives her intimate knowledge on how to respond to and prepare for investigations and regulations. Her focus on ESG, including successfully handling shareholder proposals regarding social issues, also aligns with what many corporations face today.”
During her tenure with Amazon throughout the pandemic, Heather led a global team of over 8,000 health and safety professionals and oversaw the health and safety of a global workforce of more than 1.5 million employees. Prior, she served for five years at the independent OSHRC, as both commissioner and chairman, helping to decide challenges to citations or penalties stemming from OSHA inspections. Before that, Heather was in private practice representing employers in their occupational safety and health law matters. She also served as associate general counsel to the HR Policy Association, a public policy organization that advocates for the chief human resources officers of major employers.
“A strategic focus of our practice is to expand our OSHA team given employers’ increased focus on minimizing workplace health and safety risks as well as the increase in employee activism and government actions,” said Grace Speights, leader of Morgan Lewis’s global labor and employment practice. “Heather’s insight gained in government and in one of the world’s largest employers will provide significant value-add for our clients.”
Heather’s arrival to the firm follows a recent series of federal government executives joining Morgan Lewis, including the return of John Ring, former chairman of the US National Labor Relations Board; arrival of Dana Baiocco, former commissioner of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission; Kelly Gibson, former acting deputy director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, leader of the SEC’s Enforcement Division’s nationwide Climate and ESG Task Force, and director of the SEC’s Philadelphia Regional Office; Justin Weitz, former acting principal assistant chief in the DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit, and Frederick Block, a former supervisory trial counsel in the SEC’s Enforcement Division.