Labor and Employment Attorney, DLA Piper

>> My name is Nicole Smith. I'm a partner at DLA Piper. We're the largest law firm in the world. And I practice labor employment law in our Washington, D.C. office. Well, I represent the management side of business. So I represent companies. And I do traditional labor, meaning I do bargaining with unions and labor arbitrations and defending unfair labor practice charges. I also do traditional employment litigation work before agencies, a lot of work with the EEOC. But a really big part of my practice right now is OSHA: workplace safety and health. So if there's a workplace fatality or a large accident, I get involved in those types of cases. I represent a lot of hotel casinos. So I spend a lot of time in Las Vegas. Where everyone's having fun out there, I'm working. But union negotiations, I spend a lot of time -- we have 70,000 employees represented under this one collective bargaining agreement out there. So I'll be spending the next year negotiating that contract. I also am spending a lot of time right now in Oklahoma, because I have a multiple fatality down there. And now I'm going to be spending time in Waco, because I'm involved in the fertilizer plant explosion. Well, you know, I like to -- when people ask me, for example, "What is your favorite thing that you do?" And I would say, "Without a doubt, it has to be labor arbitrations, because you are fighting over ridiculous stuff, you have no discovery; it's just the Wild West of a trial. OSHA, on the other hand, I would say, is probably the most rewarding thing that I do. Because as you said, you never know, when something, an accident's going to happen. And you have to get down there very quickly and I'm often the first person these employees see from corporate and I'm a lawyer from D.C., and I get down there and I'm part grief counselor. You're trying to conduct an investigation in a very short period of time, because the government's coming in to conduct their own investigation. And it's truly when your client needs you. And there's no preparing for it. I never know where I'm going to have to be. I at one point -- I'll just tell you a quick story. I had to go down to Florida. A client of ours, there was a fatality, and it was right after this hurricane in Florida. And I'd gone down, did my initial investigation, OSHA wasn't around because they were helping with the hurricane. So I flew back from Florida to D.C., and I was in the doctor's office, in the gown and everything and the phone rings and it's the OSHA inspector." And he said, "I'm ready to inspect." And I said, "Okay, well, I can be down there tomorrow." He said, "No, I'm standing outside of the premises right now, and I'm going in." And I said, "Well, I can be down there this afternoon." So I literally called my secretary from the doctor's office, driving to the airport, while she's looking for flights for me and I get down there, and he waited for me to come in, but I was wearing a cashmere sweater. And all day long people would say, "Why are you wearing a cashmere sweater?" And I would say, "I didn't expect to be in Florida today." But, yeah, so it can happen very quickly.