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Profile Picture

Baruch A. Fellner

Baruch
Fellner

Partner

CONTACT INFO

bfellner@gibsondunn.com

TEL:+1 202.955.8591

FAX:+1 202.530.9546

Washington, D.C.

1050 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20036-5306 USA

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PRACTICE

Labor and Employment Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Appellate and Constitutional Law Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Fashion, Retail and Consumer Products Life Sciences Litigation

BIOGRAPHY

Baruch A. Fellner, a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C. office, joined the firm in 1986 as a member of the Labor Department.  He has extensive experience in federal civil litigation, including labor, pension, profit sharing, employee benefits, occupational safety and health, and consumer product safety issues.

In 1990, Mr. Fellner founded the Firm’s occupational safety and health practice, which is recognized as one of the leading national OSHA practices especially in such areas as ergonomics litigation, challenges to OSHA regulations and OSHA fatality crisis management.  Mr. Fellner’s OSHA clients include UPS, Coke, Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, General Electric Medical and Oldcastle Industries.

Mr. Fellner has represented these and other industry leaders in some of the most significant OSHA matters including:

  • Successfully represented Coca-Cola Enterprises (“CCE”) and the Pepsi Bottling Group (“PBG”) in the most important ergonomics citations in OSHA’s recent history with multi-million dollar implications for CCE and PBG in particular and the beverage industry in general.  The citations would have had a sweeping impact on every facet of soft drink beverage delivery – from the loading and unloading of product, to the carts used to deliver product to customers. CCE and PBG were able to preserve their positions that the data-driven medicine does not support injuries attributable to material handling – language that no other OSHA settlement contains.
  • Successfully represented the National Association of Manufacturers and over 100 other industry associations and companies in leading a challenge to the federal ergonomics regulation.  Also played a lead role in commenting on the proposed rule and consulted with Congress and leading industry associations as the ergonomics regulation was repealed by legislation.
  • Represented the U.S. Chamber in opposing the  ANSI Z-365 “consensus” ergonomics standard.  The standard was ultimately abandoned.
  • Successfully challenged OSHA’s Cooperative Compliance Program in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that would have required the implementation of comprehensive health and safety programs without providing stakeholders with an opportunity for notice and comment under the Administrative Procedures Act.
  • Represented the National Association of Manufacturers in the challenge to OSHA’s recordkeeping regulation culminating in a settlement agreement that provided important clarity to recordkeeping requirements.
  • Currently represents Hyatt in ergonomic complaints and citations generated by union labor dispute; a leading retailer in a crowd-management citation resulting from a post-Thanksgiving sale crowd crushing fatality; and SeaWorld in its killer whale trainer fatality case.

Mr. Fellner has represented a number of clients before the Consumer Product Safety Commission over the past twenty years.  His experience includes convincing the CPSC that certain furnace equipment did not pose a substantial product hazard; recently, he represented Interactive Health with respect to the recall of a reclining chair.

Mr. Fellner is also a leading attorney authority on data-driven medicine related to musculoskeletal disorders.  See Baruch A. Fellner, Derry Dean Sparlin, Jr., & Daniel A. Cantu, Challenges in Regulating the Workplace to Prevent Musculoskeletal Disorders, 4 Bender’s Labor & Employment Bulletin 1 (2004), analyzing the debate over mandatory ergonomics guidelines, identifying the fundamental problems raised by many of the proposals advanced to date.

Mr. Fellner served for eight years in the Solicitor’s Office of the Department of Labor as counsel for both Appellate Litigation and Regional Litigation for the Occupational Safety and Health Division.  In those capacities, he was in charge of all litigation before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, and before the Courts of Appeals.  Prior to assuming his responsibilities with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) division, he served in the appellate court branch of the National Labor Relations Board for more than four years.  Throughout his career, Mr. Fellner has argued more than 75 cases in all of the courts of appeals, as well as numerous substantive motions in district courts throughout the nation.

Mr. Fellner formerly served as Associate General Counsel of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal agency charged with administering the insurance program for all private defined benefit pension plans, where he was in charge of overseeing PBGC’s litigation program.  In that capacity, he coordinated the tactics and strategy of defending the constitutionality of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980, against 165 separate district court challenges, and argued Gray v. PBGC and PBGC v. Connolly before the Supreme Court of the United States, achieving unanimous decisions in both cases.

Mr. Fellner was ranked as one of the top employment lawyers in the District of Columbia by Chambers USA – America’s Leading Business Lawyers (2005-2019 editions), in which he is acknowledged for ‘inspiring incredible client confidence’ and his ‘encyclopedic knowledge’ of OSHA law.  He has been listed in the 2019 edition of SuperLawyers for Labor and Employment Law work. Mr. Fellner was listed as a 2022 “Lawyer of the Year” for Labor & Employment work in Washington, D.C. by Best Lawyers®.  He was named in 2014 to the 100 Most Powerful Employment Lawyers by Lawdragon and Human Resource Executive (HRE )magazine. In 2015, Lawdragon added Mr. Fellner to the Employment Lawyers Hall of Fame for his “consistent recognition for all-around excellence in counseling clients”. Mr. Fellner is the co-author of the first book dealing with occupational safety and health law, entitled Occupational Safety and Health Law and Practice (1975), and has authored numerous articles and addressed numerous audiences in the OSHA and pension fields.

After graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the George Washington University in 1965, Mr. Fellner received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1968.

EDUCATION

Harvard University - 1968 Juris Doctor

The George Washington University - 1965 Bachelor of Arts

ADMISSIONS

District of Columbia Bar

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Firm News - November 15, 2021 | Fourteen Gibson Dunn Partners Named Top Employment Lawyers
Firm News - December 11, 2020 | Eleven Gibson Dunn Partners Named Top Employment Lawyers
Firm News - August 20, 2020 | 13 Gibson Dunn Partners Named Lawyers of the Year
Firm News - August 15, 2019 | Gibson Dunn Lawyers Recognized in the Best Lawyers in America® 2020
Client Alert - January 22, 2014 | OSHA’s New Emphasis on the Retail Industry
Client Alert - August 28, 2013 | OSHA’s Proposed Silica Limits Have Major Implications for Fracking, Construction, Manufacturing, and Maritime Industries
Client Alert - May 15, 2013 | The CPSC’s Latest Attempts to Expand Its Enforcement Authority
Client Alert - March 7, 2011 | OSHA Blurs Corporate Distinctions to Expand Liability for “Repeat” Citations
Client Alert - February 9, 2011 | OSHA Announces Temporary Retreat Regarding Noise and Musculoskeletal Initiatives
Article - October 18, 2010 | OSHA Multi-Employer Policy Raises Questions About Scope of Employers’ Liability
Client Alert - April 26, 2010 | Occupational Safety and Health Administration Announces Stringent Enforcement Policy
Client Alert - April 30, 2009 | OSHA Authority and Penalties Expected to Increase Greatly Under Proposed Legislation
Client Alert - November 3, 2008 | Workplace Injuries – Scrutinizing Workplace Fatalities
Client Alert - June 12, 2008 | Gibson Dunn Labor Partner Baruch Fellner is profiled by BNA’s Occupational Safety & Health Reporter
Client Alert - May 21, 2007 | Scrutinizing Workplace Fatalities
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