Lawrence Halprin joined Keller and Heckman in 1978.
Lawrence Halprin is nationally recognized for his work in the areas of occupational safety and health, and chemical regulation, at the federal and state levels. His occupational safety and health practice covers all aspects of legal advocacy, including: legislative reform and oversight; participation in OSHA, NIOSH and MSHA rulemakings and stakeholders processes; participation in the development of national consensus standards under the ANSI process, and TLVs under the ACGIH process; bringing and intervening in pre-enforcement challenges to final OSHA rules; providing compliance counseling and training; conducting incident investigations, compliance audits and program reviews; representing clients in OSHA investigations; and defending clients in OSHA and MSHA enforcement actions.
Mr. Halprin's engineering background and historical knowledge of OSHA rulemakings have greatly enhanced his ability to provide compliance counseling and represent clients in OSHA and MSHA enforcement actions. He has extensive experience with federal and state OSHA investigations and enforcement actions involving: chemical emergency response, chemical process safety management, chemical hazard communication, combustible dust, confined spaces, electrical safety, the General Duty Clause, (Cal-OSHA) injury and illness prevention programs, injury and illness recordkeeping, lockout/tagout, machine guarding, noise, powered industrial trucks, respiratory protection, and alleged employer retaliation claims.
Mr. Halprin's engineering background and financial background have been particularly useful in evaluating and critiquing OSHA and MSHA rulemaking proposals and suggesting alternative approaches. On behalf of one or more clients, Mr. Halprin has participated in almost every major OSHA rulemaking initiative over the past 25 years and numerous Cal-OSHA rulemakings.
Mr. Halprin has a hands-on familiarity with the manufacturing environment and has represented clients in the aerospace, chemical, construction, electronics, food, machinery, paper and forest products, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, plastics, steel, telecommunications and transportation industries. He is a member of the following ANSI and ASTM technical committees: ANSI B11.19 Subcommittee on Performance Standards for Safeguarding, the ANSI/PMMI B155.1 Committee on Safety Requirements for Packaging Machinery and Packaging-Related Converting Machinery; ASTM Committee E34 on Occupational Health and Safety; and ASTM Committee E56 on Nanotechnology. He regularly follows and participates in the development of combustible dust standards by NFPA.
In addition to his work in the area of occupational safety and health, Mr. Halprin also counsels individual companies and trade associations regarding a broad range of chemical management activities and requirements under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Tax and Trade Bureau (formerly BATF, covering the permitting, registration and operation of facilities that manufacture, process, store and distribute ethanol), the Environmental Protection Agency (asbestos rules and Risk Management Program rule), the Department of Transportation, the Chemical Safety Board, and their state counterparts. He also works with clients in developing, implementing and auditing environmental, health and safety, and product stewardship management programs. Mr. Halprin has been a strong advocate of measures to enhance the effectiveness of regulatory agencies. He has testified before Congress and participated in numerous government rulemakings in an effort to ensure that the scope and requirements of agency rules reflect what is necessary, practical and justified by appropriate risk assessment and cost-benefit analyses. Mr. Halprin is a frequent writer and speaker on a broad range of environmental, health and safety management issues.
In his transactional practice, Mr. Halprin has provided counsel and negotiated: waste management agreements; purchase, leasing and financing agreements for commercial properties, drilling equipment and computer systems; and telecommunications system design, construction and operating agreements. Before joining Keller and Heckman, Mr. Halprin clerked for the Honorable Charles R. Johnston of the U.S. Tax Court.
Enforcement Actions with Widespread Impact, Agency Rulemakings and Pre-Enforcement Court Challenges
Mr. Halprin has represented clients in a significant number of OSHA enforcement actions having widespread application across an entire industry and, in some cases, the entire manufacturing sector or the entire industrial sector (outside of mining). He has participated in almost every major OSHA rulemaking initiative over the past 25 years and numerous Cal-OSHA rulemakings. He also participated in numerous court challenges to final OSHA rules - on behalf of petitioners challenging rules that our clients concluded were not reasonably necessary or appropriate to workplace safety and health, and on behalf of intervenors to protect final rules against efforts to make them more burdensome. Some of these representations are summarized below.
· Co-counsel and primary author of the comments for the primary industry coalition (led by the National Association of Manufacturers) challenging OSHA's proposed October 19, 2010 re-interpretation of the OSHA Noise Standard.
· Co-counsel and primary author of the comments for the primary industry coalition (led by the US Chamber of Commerce) challenging OSHA's proposed January 29, 2010 addition of a musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) column to the OSHA Injury And Illness Recordkeeping Rule.
· Primary author of the comments submitted on behalf of the Grocery Manufacturers Association in the Cal-OSHA Diacetyl Rulemaking to preserve the exemption for flavors containing less than 1% diacetyl
· Lead counsel for the successful intervention on behalf of the Aerospace Industries Association to preserve the Separate Engineering Control Airborne Limits (SECAL), permissible exposure limit (PEL) and action level (AL) of OSHA's Hexavalent Chromium Standard against the challenge brought by Public Citizen. Public Citizen Health Research Group v. Dept. of Labor, 557 F.3d 165 (3d Cir. 2009).
· Author of the comments submitted to the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) that apparently persuaded the CSB to conclude that it did not have the legal authority under the Clean Air Act to adopt the proposed "Accident Investigation Initiation Notice and Order to Preserve Evidence [Rule]," which was published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2006 (71 FR 309).
· As lead counsel, on behalf of the American Forest & Paper Association, negotiated an unprecedented compliance instruction (effectively a generic variance) from OSHA in connection with the design, operation and maintenance of chemical batch digesters -- a type of pressure vessel in wide use within the paper industry to convert wood chips into pulp. See OSHA Directive CPL 02-01-041, EFFECTIVE DATE: 9-16-04, SUBJECT: Alternative Abatement Method for 29 CFR 1910.261(g)(17) - Over-pressure Protection for Batch Digesters Used in the Pulp Processing Industry. OSHA vacated citations against four mills that were determined to be in compliance with the alternative abatement method established by this directive.
· Primary author of the 2003 comments submitted on behalf of the primary construction coalition in the Small Business Review of OSHA's draft comprehensive standard for occupational exposure to crystalline silica under SBREFA. SBREFA Final Report issued December 19, 2003, extensively quoted coalition comments.
· Co-counsel for the leading industry coalition (led by the National Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce), several major trade associations, and several major corporations in the OSHA Ergonomics Program Standard Rulemaking and the successful effort before Congress to rescind OSHA's ill-advised Ergonomics Program Standard in 2001.
· Lead counsel in a case resulting in a 1995 OSHA Letter of Interpretation and settlement acknowledging that employers may inspect representative authorized employees (and are not required to inspect every authorized employee) applying lockout/tagout on an annual basis, and may inspect representative applications of lockout/tagout (and are not required to inspect the application of lockout/tagout to every piece of annually serviced equipment) on an annual basis.
· Lead counsel for the successful challenge to the 1994 amendments to the OSHA Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Standards brought on behalf of the American Forest & Paper Association and the American Iron and Steel Institute, resulting in a settlement that limited the scope of the employers' obligations under that rule to what OSHA had demonstrated to be reasonably necessary and appropriate.
· Co-counsel in the successful intervention on behalf of Chocolate Manufacturers Association and National Confectioners Association to preserve the minor servicing provisions of the OSHA Lock-Out/Tag-Out Standard against union challenges International union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW v. OSHA, 938 F.2d 1310 (D.C. Cir. 1991).
News, Events & Articles
News
Mar 08, 2012, Partner Larry Halprin to Present at the American Forest & Paper Association 2012 Employee Relations Conference
Jan 10, 2012, Keller and Heckman Comments on NIOSH's Review of its RELs/PELs and Cancer Policies
May 05, 2009, Partner Lawrence Halprin Quoted on Workplace Safety and OSHA Regulations
Apr 29, 2009, New OSHA Legislation Would Dramatically Increase Civil and Criminal Penalties for Workplace Safety Violations
Apr 28, 2009, Partner Lawrence Halprin testifies before House Education and Labor Committee on Adequacy of OSHA Penalty Structure
Aug 04, 2008, Post Hearing Comments Due on OSHA Proposed Rule for Confined Spaces in Construction
Jul 09, 2008, Are You Ready For REACH?
Events
Mar 27, 2012, A Webinar: How will OSHA's adoption of GHS impact your operations?
Oct 24, 2011, Register Today! - Chemical Control Law Seminar - October 24-26, 2011
Sep 23, 2008, Advanced Chemical Control Course: Managing a Shifting Regulatory Climate - Washington, D.C.
Feb 08, 2007, Regulations for Nanotechnology in Consumer Products
Articles
Feb 14, 2012, KH Workplace Update
Jan 05, 2012, SEC Unveils New Dodd-Frank Mine Safety Disclosure Requirements
Dec 14, 2011, KH Workplace Update
Dec 07, 2011, KH Workplace Update
Mar 11, 2011, The Constantly Pending PMN: Low Volume Exemption Applications Are Living Documents
Sep 20, 2010, Environmental Business Alert: End-of-Year Deadline to Nominate Existing Chemicals for Taiwan Inventory Nears
May 03, 2010, OSHA's Proposed Severe Violator Enforcement Program
Nov 12, 2009, Combustible Dust Update: OSHA's Preliminary Rulemaking on Dust is Underway
Oct 08, 2009, EEOC ADAAA NPRM Guarantees Spike In Disability Discrimination Claims and Creates a Backdoor Ergonomics Rule
Mar 10, 2009, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Releases Proposed Regulations to Prohibit Genetic Discrimination or Misuse of "Genetic Information"
Mar 10, 2009, Legal Impacts and Opportunities of GHS Implementations in the United States and Around the Globe
Aug 01, 2008, Department of Labor Submits Draft Proposed Rule on Occupational Risk Assessment to OMB for Review
Jun 06, 2007, REACH Is Here: Are You Ready?
Mar 19, 2007, Workplace Alert: OSHA Announces Site-Specific Targeting Plan for FY 2007
Jan 11, 2007, Workplace Alert: Is There a Hidden Agenda in Phase III of OSHA's Standards Improvement Project and OSHA Recordkeeping Reminder
Feb 28, 2006, Workplace Alert February 2006 Gearing Up for OSHA's New Hexavalent Chromium Standards
Feb 17, 2006, Proposed New Rules: N.J.A.C. 12:122, Cutting and Grinding of Masonry
Jan 17, 2006, Workplace Alert January 2006 Recent Proposed Rule by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board Requires Companies to Preserve Evidence Related to Chemical Accidents
Dec 22, 2005, The Potential of PELS Based on Particle Size
Aug 17, 2005, OSHA Alert August 2005 OSHA Announces Site-Specific Targeting Plan for FY 2006
Jul 25, 2005, Workplace Alert July 2005 OSHA's Proposed Electrical Safety Standards
Jul 14, 2005, OSHA Alert- House Passes Four OSHA Reform Bills
May 05, 2005, OSHA Alert - OSHA Soliciting Ionizing Radiation Information and Comments
Mar 29, 2005, Workplace Alert March 2005 Comments on Revised ADA Standards Due May 31, 2005
Mar 21, 2005, Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution
Feb 08, 2005, DRAFT Asbestos Bill Includes Huge EPA/OSHA-Based Enforcement Hammers
Dec 07, 2004, Employment Law Alert December 7, 2004 Employer Consent Required Before Combining Regular Employees With Joint Employees Into Single Bargaining Unit
Oct 02, 2004, OSHA ALERT - OSHA's Proposed Rule on Hexavalent Chromium
Jul 30, 2004, OSHA REFORM - The SAFE ACT -- S. 2719
Jun 22, 2004, Current Federal Regulatory Developments and Rulemakings
Feb 09, 2004, OSHA Recordkeeping Has No Normal Body Function Exemption
Aug 13, 2003, OSHA Reform Legislation
Jul 01, 2003, OSHA Drops MSD Column, Definition of MSD and MSD Privacy Case Exclusion
Jun 01, 2003, Environmental Reporting and Recordkeeping: Sound Strategies and Legal Insights
May 13, 2003, Workplace Advisory May 2003, Issue No. 15
May 12, 2003, Workplace Alert May 12, 2003 OSHA Announces Draft Ergonomics Guidelines for Retail Grocery Stores
Apr 24, 2003, Is OSHA Enforcing an Invalidly Adopted and Subsequently Lapsed Amendment to its Lockout/Tagout Standard?
Feb 12, 2003, Employment Law Alert February 12, 2003 Michigan Executive Order May Bar Contractors for Employment and OSHA Violations
Jan 24, 2003, Employers May No Longer Rely On Compliance With Their Local Building Code As Establishing Compliance With OSHA Fire Safety Requirements
Oct 12, 2002, Amendment to the Final Injury and Illness Recording Rule Signed and Filed
May 31, 2002, How to Handle an OSHA Inspection - General Do's and Don'ts
Apr 12, 2002, OSHA's Comprehensive Plan for Addressing Workplace Ergonomics Hazards
Mar 29, 2002, Ripe for a Challenge--Does OSHA's Lockout/Tagout Standard Really Require Equipment-Specific Energy Control Procedures
Jan 25, 2002, Posting Date for OSHA Form 200 is February 1
Jan 25, 2002, OSHA Inspection Targeting Program Revised, Expiration Date Extended
Aug 15, 2001, OSHA Launches National Emphasis Program for Lead Exposure
Jul 12, 2001, OSHA Announces that Final Rule for Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Will Go Into Effect on January 1, 2002, and Proposes to Stay The Provisions on MSDs and Hearing Loss
Mar 08, 2001, Both Houses Pass Historic Rejection of OSHA's Ergonomic Program Standard
Jan 19, 2001, OSHA Publishes Final Rule for Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, and Makes Major Changes in Employer Obligations
Jan 01, 2001, 2001 Occupational Safety and Health Law Handbook
Oct 17, 2000, OSHA Confirms Acceptability of Air Purifying Respirators to Protect Workers from Diisocyanate Exposures
Jan 10, 2000, OSHA Standards Interpretation and Compliance Letters
Sep 15, 1999, OSHA Says 30 Year Record Retention Requirement for Employee Exposure Record Applies to Non-Detectable Levels
Nov 23, 1998, Comments on OSHA's Draft Proposed Safety and Health Program Rule
Nov 10, 1998, Primary Concerns Raised by OSHA's Safety and Health Program Rule Initiative
Jul 23, 1998, Comments on OSHA's Request to Extend OMB Approval of Paperwork Requirements
Jun 01, 1998, Workplace Advisory June 1998, Issue No. 14
May 08, 1998, Scientific Basis of Z-365 Standard for Cumulative Traumas Questioned
Apr 22, 1998, Comprehensive Critique of Draft Safety and Health Program Standard Submitted to OSHA
Jan 01, 1998, Workplace Advisory January 1998, Issue No. 13
Feb 01, 1997, Workplace Advisory Winter/Spring 1997
Oct 01, 1996, Employee Conduct and the OSH Act: New York State Electric & Gas Corp. vs. Secretary of Labor, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, July 3, 1996
Apr 26, 1995, Interpretation of Lockout/Tagout: General Motors Corporation, Delco Chassis Division, OSHRC Docket Nos. 91-2973, 91-3116 & 91-3117 (Consolidated), Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, April 26, 1995