What Lawyers Have to Say About Changing Worker Health, Safety Rules

Nancy Inesta, a labor and employment litigator and partner at Baker & Hostetler in Los Angeles and a chair of the firm task force on COVID-19, said that “in advising clients about masks, we are having to look at the guidance that has been promulgated by agencies like the CDC, WHO and OSHA, which by the way, has changed over time. We are not medical doctors, we are attorneys, and we rely on the agencies to provide the parameters for employers.” (Credit: Freedomz/Shutterstock)

At companies around the U.S., general counsel and their outside law firms have been wrestling with COVID-19 and its business and workplace disruptions for weeks now.

In early March, some employers were still skeptical of the seriousness of the threat, and some businesses were resisting government demands for “nonessential” businesses to close, lawyers said. Since then, “everyone has had a Damascus road experience and now takes this seriously,” said Howard Mavity, a partner at Fisher Phillips in Atlanta and a member of its COVID-19 and essential business task forces, who said the turning point came around mid-March after the NCAA college basketball finals were suddenly canceled.