PATRICK S. CASEY is senior counsel in Sidley’s Chicago office. For more than 30 years, he has practiced in all aspects of labor and employment law. He has tried breach of contract and age, race and sex employment discrimination cases (including those involving denial of tenure) before judges and juries, presented oral argument before the United States Courts of Appeal for the Seventh and Eighth Circuits and appeared before the United States Supreme Court.
Pat has conducted several highly sensitive internal investigations involving allegations of fraud of high level executives. He has guided two large public utilities through a 500 person reduction-in-force without incurring one discrimination charge, and has successfully prosecuted and defended restrictive covenant cases for accounting firms, telecommunications companies and physician groups. Industry sectors in which Pat has substantial employment experience include hedge funds, healthcare and nonprofits.
Pat’s traditional labor practice includes counseling employers about union relations, defending employers against unfair labor practices and representing employers during collective bargaining negotiations and in arbitration proceedings. He helped transform a chemical company’s very traditional collective bargaining relationship into one that contained skill blocks and incentive pay without any strikes or other work disruptions. He also successfully negotiated a project labor agreement on behalf of a large airline with respect to its construction of a new terminal at a major metropolitan airport.
A significant portion of Pat’s practice involves representing clients nationwide in occupational and mine safety and health investigations and litigation with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), its state counterparts, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with respect to its Risk Management Plan enforcement, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Pat has investigated, litigated and favorably settled several OSHA, MSHA, EPA and DOT citations involving five and six-figure penalties. He also has represented clients nationwide in industrial accidents (including falls, electrocutions and asphyxiations), explosions and chemical releases involving multiple employee fatalities and serious injuries. He has conducted one- to three-week occupational safety and health reviews of clients’ facilities, including large petroleum refineries, asphalt refineries, chemical facilities and a packaging plant. Pat defends employers against employee whistleblower claims investigated by OSHA under numerous federal laws, including under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (one such claim involved an employee of a U.S. company’s foreign subsidiary).
Pat has written several articles and lectured on occupational safety and health compliance issues. He represented the United States Council for International Business at the Interregional Consultations on the International Labour Organization SafeWork Programme held in Geneva, Switzerland, and he was a featured panelist at the National Petrochemical Refiners Association Annual Meeting on OSHA’s Petroleum Refinery Process Safety Management National Emphasis Program.
Pat’s pro bono activities include representing the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana and a more than 20 year membership on the Board of Directors of the USO of Illinois, for which he served as Chair during 2005 and 2006.