United States Department of Labor

The Philadelphia Regional Solicitor's Office

The Philadelphia Regional Solicitor's Office is responsible for most civil trial litigation and legal support for the U.S. Department of Labor in the following states:

• Pennsylvania
• Delaware
• Maryland
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• District of Columbia

We employ 46 attorneys and 15 support staff, including those working at our Associate Regional Solicitor's Office in Arlington, Virginia.

Branch Office

• Arlington, Virginia

What We Do:

The Philadelphia Regional Solicitor's Office is primarily involved in the enforcement of a number of federal laws that ensure that our region's workers:

• are employed in safe and healthy workplaces, including in underground and surface coal mines and in metal/nonmetal mines;
• are paid at least the federal minimum and overtime wage rates;
• are treated without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, or status as a whistleblower, a person with disability or a veteran; and
• have pension and health and welfare plans that are operated in their best interests

To carry out our mission to protect our region's workers, we recommend and prosecute civil litigation in front of administrative agencies and the U.S. District Courts, provide legal advice to DOL client agencies, and assist U.S. Attorneys in the prosecution of criminal cases.

Philadelphia and Arlington trial attorneys travel to courthouses, coal mines, farms, and factories. We support every enforcement program in the Department of Labor, along with representing the Department in Black Lung and Longshore workers' compensation cases and internal labor relations matters. Cases originate in both offices, depending on the location of the client involved. Arlington attorneys handle mostly Virginia, District of Columbia, and southern West Virginia matters with a particular focus on mine safety cases, minimum wage and overtime cases, and black lung matters.

Our Successes:

• A team of Philadelphia attorneys recovered nearly $20 million in litigation against a pension fund manager who diverted employee benefit plan funds for his own purposes.
• We put a stop to a "bonus" plan that discouraged miners from reporting safety concerns at six major coal mines in West Virginia and Ohio, and won $150,000 in civil penalties against the coal companies who imposed the plan on their employees.
• Attorneys in the Arlington office successfully litigated the first cases involving the new Pattern of Violations ("POV") rule that was promulgated following the Upper Big Branch mine disaster which killed 29 miners.
• We obtained a judgment awarding a minimum of $1.7 million in back pay for 6,000 telemarketing workers who were denied break time in at their workplaces in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio.
• As a result of a lawsuit we filed, a national steel manufacturer changed its accident reporting policy so that it no longer could be used to retaliate against employees who reported injuries.
• Philadelphia attorneys tried the first systemic discrimination case against a federal construction contractor that we alleged discriminated against both minority and non-minority group members, and intentionally underpaid women.

DOL Agencies We Support:

We provide support primarily for the following DOL agencies:

• Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) (protecting pension and health and welfare plan benefits)
• Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) (safety for miners, mostly coal in our region)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) (safety for everyone else)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration Whistleblower Directorate (protecting workers who speak up about unsafe conditions on the job)
• Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) (protecting employees of and applicants for employment of federal contractors against discrimination)
• Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP), Black Lung and Longshore Divisions
• Wage and Hour Division (WHD) (enforcing minimum wage, overtime, and child labor laws, protecting farmworkers, and ensuring that American workers are not cheated)

CONTACT INFORMATION:

• Region III. PHILADELPHIA

  Suite 630 East, The Curtis Center
  170 S. Independence Mall West
  Philadelphia, PA 19106-3306

  (215) 861-5121
  (215) 861-5162 (FAX)

  • REGIONAL SOLICITOR Oscar L. Hampton III
    • DEPUTY REGIONAL SOLICITOR Richard T. Buchanan
      • Counsel for Civil Rights Andrea Appel
      • Counsel for ERISA Jodeen Hobbs
      • Counsel for MSHA / BLBA Vacant
      • Counsel for OSHA Michael Doyle
      • Counsel for Wage and Hour Adam Welsh
      • Management Analyst Vacant
• Arlington

  201 12th Street South - Suite 401
  Arlington, VA 22202-5450

  (202) 693-9393
  (202) 693-9392 (FAX)

  • ASSOCIATE REGIONAL SOLICITOR Samantha Thomas
    • Counsel for MSHA Robert S. Wilson
    • Counsel for Wage and Hour Leah A. Williams