Edwin G. Foulke, Jr.
Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. is a partner with Fisher & Phillips LLP, a leading national labor and employment law firm. Mr. Foulke is co-chair of the firm’s Workplace Safety and Catastrophe Management Practice Group in its Atlanta, Georgia office. Mr. Foulke’s practice includes workplace safety compliance and strategic safety planning, defense of employers in responding to workplace health and safety cases, providing advice and assistance to employers in responding to workplace fatalities and catastrophic accidents, handling whistleblower complaints and providing advice and assistance to employers in legislative and regulatory matters.
Prior to joining Fisher & Phillips, Mr. Foulke was the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. As head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Mr. Foulke oversaw its staff of more than 2,200 safety and health professionals, whistleblower investigators and support personnel. Named by President George W. Bush to head OSHA on Sept. 15, 2005, Mr. Foulke was confirmed by the US Senate on March 15, 2006. During his tenure at OSHA, workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities rates dropped to their lowest level in recorded history.
For approximately thirty (30) years, Mr. Foulke has worked in the labor and employment area, specializing in occupational safety and health issues, workplace violence risk assessment and prevention, whistleblower protection, and accident and fatality prevention. In 2008, 2010, and again in June 2011 he was named as one of the “50 Most Influential EHS Leaders” in the United States by “EHS Today” magazine. Mr. Foulke is one of the most respected members of the safety legal profession.
Nominated by President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Foulke served, from 1990 to 1995, on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, chairing the Commission from March 1990 to February 1994. The three-member Commission is an independent federal adjudicatory agency that renders decisions involving workplace safety and health citations arising from OSHA inspections. Mr. Foulke is the only individual in the country to have been the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA and the Chairman of the OSH Review Commission.
Mr. Foulke serves on the Workplace Health Safety and Security Panel for the Society for Human Resource Management. He was also a former member of the Health and Safety Subcommittee for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Foulke has authored numerous articles and books on workplace safety and health for various entities, including the American Chamber of Commerce, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, American Bar Association, the South Carolina Bar Association, and the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry.
Mr. Foulke, a native of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, graduated from North Carolina State University (with honors) in 1974. He earned his law degree from Loyola University in 1978 and a Master of Law degree from Georgetown University Law School in 1993. He also served as an adjunct professor at New Orleans’ St. Mary’s Dominican College. Mr. Foulke was a high school and college All-American in swimming.
Mr. Foulke is admitted to practice in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and the District of Columbia, and is admitted in the Fourth, Eleventh, and D.C. Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. He is married to Wendy Smith Foulke from Hampton, S.C. Mr. Foulke can be contacted at (404) 231-1400 or at [email protected].
