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>> My name is Nicole Smith.

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I'm a partner at DLA Piper.

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We're the largest law firm in the world.

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And I practice labor employment
law in our Washington, D.C. office.

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Well, I represent the management
side of business.

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So I represent companies.

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And I do traditional labor, meaning I do
bargaining with unions and labor arbitrations

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and defending unfair labor practice charges.

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I also do traditional employment litigation work
before agencies, a lot of work with the EEOC.

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But a really big part of my practice right
now is OSHA: workplace safety and health.

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So if there's a workplace
fatality or a large accident,

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I get involved in those types of cases.

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I represent a lot of hotel casinos.

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So I spend a lot of time in Las Vegas.

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Where everyone's having fun
out there, I'm working.

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But union negotiations, I spend a lot of time --

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we have 70,000 employees represented under this
one collective bargaining agreement out there.

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So I'll be spending the next
year negotiating that contract.

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I also am spending a lot of
time right now in Oklahoma,

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because I have a multiple fatality down there.

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And now I'm going to be spending
time in Waco, because I'm involved

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in the fertilizer plant explosion.

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Well, you know, I like to --
when people ask me, for example,

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"What is your favorite thing that you do?"

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And I would say, "Without a doubt, it has to
be labor arbitrations, because you are fighting

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over ridiculous stuff, you have no
discovery; it's just the Wild West of a trial.

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OSHA, on the other hand, I would say, is
probably the most rewarding thing that I do.

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Because as you said, you never know, when
something, an accident's going to happen.

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And you have to get down there very quickly and
I'm often the first person these employees see

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from corporate and I'm a lawyer from D.C., and
I get down there and I'm part grief counselor.

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You're trying to conduct an investigation
in a very short period of time,

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because the government's coming in
to conduct their own investigation.

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And it's truly when your client needs you.

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And there's no preparing for it.

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I never know where I'm going to have to be.

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I at one point -- I'll just
tell you a quick story.

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I had to go down to Florida.

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A client of ours, there was a fatality, and
it was right after this hurricane in Florida.

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And I'd gone down, did my initial investigation,

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OSHA wasn't around because they
were helping with the hurricane.

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So I flew back from Florida to D.C., and
I was in the doctor's office, in the gown

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and everything and the phone rings
and it's the OSHA inspector."

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And he said, "I'm ready to inspect."

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And I said, "Okay, well, I
can be down there tomorrow."

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He said, "No, I'm standing outside of the
premises right now, and I'm going in."

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And I said, "Well, I can be
down there this afternoon."

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So I literally called my secretary from the
doctor's office, driving to the airport,

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while she's looking for flights for me and I
get down there, and he waited for me to come in,

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but I was wearing a cashmere sweater.

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And all day long people would say, "Why
are you wearing a cashmere sweater?"

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And I would say, "I didn't
expect to be in Florida today."

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But, yeah, so it can happen very quickly.