Michael D. Felsen
91 Saint Rose Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
617-285-6558
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-felsen-47871aa/
Overview
During the last nine years of my 39-year career with the U.S. Department of Labor, I led a team of twenty-five lawyers and five paralegals/support staff in implementing the Department’s multi-faceted worker protection mission in New England, focusing on high quality advocacy and advice, innovation, and strategic, effective approaches to labor law enforcement. Currently, I do both compensated and uncompensated work locally, nationally, and internationally, primarily addressing worker protection issues.
Experience
Senior Advisor, Justice at Work, February, 2022 - present (compensated)
Strategic Enforcement Advisor, Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University, January, 2022 - present (compensated)
Access to Justice Fellow, Justice at Work, September, 2018-present (pro bono)
Strategic and litigation advice and support to attorneys and worker centers, mentoring of law students, as Fellow at small legal non-profit dedicated to supporting worker organizing for workplace dignity and legal rights
Other pro bono work, 2018-present
Biden-Harris Labor Department Transition Team outside consultant; National Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health Advisor; Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health Board Member and Legal Committee co-chair; International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW), co-facilitated session in Brussels on worker safety and health, presented on strategic enforcement during COVID, project work including review of Maldives Occupational Safety and Health legislation; Worker Rights Consortium project work (principles for COVID workers compensation presumption); Low Wage Workers Legal Network (worker rights/labor proposals for Biden-Harris team consideration); Massachusetts Attorney General’s Labor Advisory Council; Immigrant/asylum legal work and representation, in conjunction with PAIR Project; assisting worker center coalitions in drafting and advocating for wage theft, workers compensation, and anti-retaliation legislation; Labor Guild Faculty, Agency All-Stars course; American Bar Association OSHA Conference and Massachusetts Bar Association panel presentations; prepared and submitted amicus brief on behalf of five former senior DOL officials to Third Circuit in Maid-Rite case
External Collaborator/Consultant, International Labor Organization (Geneva), July 2018-March 2020 (compensated)
Supported “strategic compliance” initiative of ILO’s Labour Administration, Labour Inspection, and Safety and Health, including drafting an inspection protocol and enforcement handbook
U.S. Department of Labor
Regional Solicitor, June 2010 – July, 2018 (New England Region); Acting Regional Solicitor, April, 2009 – June 2010
Supervisory Trial Attorney/Counsel for ERISA, November 1989 – 2009 (led pension and health plan litigation and advice in New England Region);
Trial Attorney, September 1979 - November 1989 (litigated full range of cases involving violations of federal worker protection laws, involving wages and hours, workplace safety and health, pension and health plan fiduciary duties, mine safety, government contractors, etc.)
Acting Senior Project Manager, International Labor Affairs Bureau: managed DOL-sponsored projects in Washington D.C. and on-site in Poland and Ukraine, Oct. 2003-April 2004 (projects included mine safety [Ukraine]; unemployment abatement [Poland]; labor law reform [Ukraine, in collaboration with International Labor Organization])
Frequent public speaking engagements on proactive enforcement strategies (conferences, law schools, bar association events); most recently, OSHA Basics panelist at ABA OSHA Conference, March 2021
Career-related Awards/Appointments
Recipient of Labor Guild’s 2016 Father Boyle Award for “Excellence in Labor-Management Relations, Exemplifying Moral Integrity, Professional Competence, Community Concern”
Distinguished Career Service Award; Multiple Secretary’s Exceptional Achievement and Worker Protection Awards; Appointment to Senior Executive Service (2010); Secretary of Labor’s Senior Executive Service Performance Review Board (2010-2018); Solicitor’s Office Strategic Management Committee (2010–2018)
USDOL Strategic Initiatives/Leadership Achievements
Chaired national team tasked with enhancing leveraged, enterprise-wide enforcement; implemented the first enterprise-wide OSHA enforcement actions
Developed and implemented enhanced wage and hour enforcement strategies, including robust use of “liquidated” and “punitive” damages remedies
Developed and implemented enhanced use of OSHA “imminent danger” enforcement
Fostered augmented whistleblower protections, including for undocumented workers
Actively collaborated with worker centers, unions, and state and local law enforcement entities
Prompted innovative public affairs initiatives, including regional solicitor’s offices’ blogs on DOL website highlighting enforcement efforts
Chaired Solicitor’s Office nationwide Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Education
Harvard College, Bachelor of Arts, June 1971
Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Northeastern University School of Law, Juris Doctor, June 1978
Clerkship Committee-Highest Recommendation
Law Clerk to Justice Paul Liacos, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
September 1978 – September 1979
Writing
Labor-related published articles:
“Managing for Strategic Enforcement: A Conceptual Toolkit” (Rutgers University)
The American Prospect: “How Deregulation Led to the Opioid Epidemic” and “Wage Theft is a Real National Emergency”
Multiple opinion pieces in The Hill (workplace safety, wage theft, COVID workplace issues, importance of masking, enforcement issues) and in The Progressive (raise the minimum wage, workplace safety, workers compensation, immigrant worker deportations)(republished in newspapers including Newsday, The Hartford Courant, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sacramento Bee)
Baltimore Sun (re corporate workplace ethics); Commonwealth Magazine (protecting against workers comp retaliation)
Multiple Boston Globe letters to the editor on worker safety and health, ergonomics/opioids, minimum wage, government ethics
Other opinion writing:
Op-eds on the Israel/Palestine conflict and Jewish/Muslim relations published in Boston Globe, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Daily Star (Lebanon), Egypt Times, Common Ground News Service, Times of Israel, other international outlets, 2007-2019