Front Office
Elena S. Goldstein
Deputy Solicitor of Labor
SOL Front Office
Elena Goldstein serves as the Deputy Solicitor of Labor. Immediately prior to rejoining the Department in 2023, Ms. Goldstein served as Deputy Chief of the Civil Rights Bureau in the New York State Office of the Attorney General, where she served as a lead counsel in numerous cases challenging federal executive and agency actions and supervised a wide range of civil rights matters.
Ms. Goldstein previously spent nine years as a career employee in the Office of the Solicitor, litigating cases involving minimum wage and overtime laws, workplace safety, whistle-blower statues, and a variety of other labor and employment laws. She also worked as a Skadden Fellow and senior staff attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group, where she helped to start a workers’ rights project focusing on the rights of low-wage and immigrant workers. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff in the Southern District of New York and the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ms. Goldstein is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School.
Stanley E. Keen
Deputy Solicitor for National Operations
Acting Deputy Solicitor for Regional Enforcement
SOL Front Office
Stanley Keen serves as the Deputy Solicitor for National Operations within the Office of the Solicitor. Prior to joining SOL’s Front Office in 2019, Mr. Keen was the Regional Solicitor in the Atlanta Regional Solicitor's Office from May 16, 2004 and served as the Acting Deputy Regional Solicitor and the Counsel for ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) Litigation.
Mr. Keen joined the Atlanta Regional Solicitor's Office in 1991. In his first 12 years as a trial attorney with the Department of Labor, he litigated and provided advice in most of the programs enforced by the Department. Notably, Mr. Keen litigated a series of OSHA cases relating to fall hazards on the Space Shuttle launch platforms at Kennedy Space Center; recovered over $14 million in losses to a pension plan sponsored by a Mississippi nursing company; litigated a number of cases intended to end H-2B and wage abuses in the crab-picking industry on the North Carolina coast; and tried the first ERISA case brought by the Department involving a multiple-employer welfare arrangement (MEWA).
Before joining the Solicitor's Office, Mr. Keen served as a judicial clerk and worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he assisted in the investigation of the Ohio bank failures in the 1980s.
Mr. Keen graduated from Emory University School of Law in 1987 and Emory University College in 1984.
Barry H. Joyner
Associate Solicitor
Black Lung and Longshore Legal Services
Barry H. Joyner has been the Associate Solicitor for the Black Lung and Longshore Legal Services Division (BLLLS) since March 2019. BLLLS provides legal services to the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) in connection with Black Lung Benefits Act and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act and its extensions. BLLLS’s work involves appellate litigation before the Department of Labor’s Benefits Review Board (BRB) and the federal courts of appeals, development and defense of regulations, and legal advice.
Mr. Joyner joined BLLLS’s predecessor, the Black Lung Division, as an appellate litigator in 1991. He successfully litigated numerous cases under both the Black Lung and Longshore Acts, and received the Solicitor’s Mary-Helen Mautner award for excellence in appellate litigation in 2014. He also helped OWCP develop regulations governing the payment of medical benefits and provided the agency with legal advice on numerous procedural, medical and technological issues. From 2017 to 2019, Mr. Joyner coordinated Appointments Clause litigation for the Black Lung and Longshore programs.
Prior to coming to the Solicitor’s Office, Mr. Joyner worked for the BRB from 1987 to 1991, as an attorney-advisor and Deputy Associate General Counsel. He was in private practice in Albuquerque, NM, from 1986 to 1987.
He received his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of New Mexico in 1983, and graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1986.
Beverly Dankowitz
Associate Solicitor
Civil Rights & Labor-Management
Beverly Dankowitz has served as the Associate Solicitor for the Civil Rights and Labor-Management Division (CRLM) since May 2016. Prior to her appointment as Associate Solicitor, Ms. Dankowitz served as the Deputy Associate Solicitor for CRLM for five years. In this position, she oversees the Division within the Office of the Solicitor that provides legal services to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), Civil Rights Center (CRC), Women’s Bureau, Office of Disability Policy and to several other agencies on civil rights-related issues.
Ms. Dankowitz has been an attorney in CRLM and its predecessor, the Civil Rights Division, since 1985, serving as a trial attorney, Assistant Counsel, and Counsel. As Counsel for Litigation and Regional Coordination for 10 years, she supervised the division's enforcement-related activity under OFCCP’s laws, monitored OFCCP enforcement activity nation-wide and provided advice to OFCCP and the Regional Solicitors' Offices. She successfully resolved a number of systemic hiring discrimination cases, some in partnership with RSOL, oversaw administrative appeals that led to favorable final agency decisions, worked with DOJ successfully to defend final agency decisions and developed nation-wide procedures to strategically select cases for enforcement and improve the effectiveness of conciliation agreements.
Ms. Dankowitz received her J.D. from American University and her undergraduate degree from the University at Albany - SUNY.
Matthew Bernt
Associate Solicitor
Employment & Training Legal Services
Matthew Bernt is the Associate Solicitor for the Employment and Training Legal Services (ETLS) Division within the Office of the Solicitor. ETLS provides all manner of legal services to the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS), and Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB).
From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Bernt served as the Counsel for Job Corps and Apprenticeship in ETLS, and from 2010 to 2015, he was a staff attorney in ETLS primarily providing legal advice to ETA in the administration of its employment and training programs. Mr. Bernt joined the Office of the Solicitor in 2008 through its Honors Attorney Program.
Mr. Bernt received his J.D. from the Catholic University Columbus School of Law in 2008 and a B.A. in History from the College of William and Mary in 2005.
Jennifer S. Brand
Associate Solicitor
Fair Labor Standards
Jennifer Brand has been the Associate Solicitor of Labor for the Fair Labor Standards Division since March 2011. In this position, she oversees the National Office Division within the Office of the Solicitor which handles all matters involving the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Davis Bacon Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, other federal wage related statutes, and several whistleblower statutes. The Fair Labor Standards Division also acts as Counsel to the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor.
From May 2008 until March 2011, Ms. Brand was the Executive Director of the New York State Joint Enforcement Task Force on Employee Misclassification. Prior to joining the Task Force, Ms. Brand held the position of Chief of the Labor Bureau at the New York State Attorney General's Office. She had been employed in the Attorney General's Labor Bureau for nearly twenty years and had previously held the positions of Deputy Bureau Chief, General Labor Section Chief and Assistant Attorney General.
Ms. Brand is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law and of Barnard College, and she also holds a Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
Thomas G. Giblin
Associate Solicitor
Federal Employers' & Energy Workers' Compensation
Thomas Giblin is the Associate Solicitor for the Division of Federal Employees' and Energy Workers' Compensation (FEEWC) within the Office of the Solicitor. FEEWC provides legal services principally in connection with two workers' compensation programs (the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act and the Federal Employees' Compensation Act), administers the subrogation provisions for all claims under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, and provides legal services for claims and litigation from individuals seeking damages for personal injury or property damage caused by the negligence of Department employees.
From 2007 to 2015, Mr. Giblin served as the Deputy Associate Solicitor for the Division, and from 2001-2007, he was a staff attorney in the Division handling mostly legal advice for the Federal Employees' Compensation Act program. Prior to joining FEEWC, he worked as a staff attorney at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, Office of the Chief Administrative Law Judge, from 1989 - 2001.
Mr. Giblin received a Juris Doctor from George Washington University in 1989 and a Bachelor of Arts in History from The Catholic University of America in 1986.
Rose Marie L. Audette
Associate Solicitor
Management and Administrative Legal Services
Rose Marie L. Audette became the Associate Solicitor for Management and Administrative Legal Services in September 2012. MALS is a combined legal and administrative division within in the Office of the Solicitor (SOL) of the Department of Labor. Ms. Audette leads the MALS Division's provision of general law legal services to the Department of Labor as a whole in such areas as appropriations and procurement law, FOIA and information law, federal records, and internal employment law. Additionally as SOL Administrative Officer, she leads the Division's provision of administrative services to SOL regarding HR, finance and budget, IT and technology, and litigation support. She also leads provision of FOIA administrative services to the Department through the Office of Information Services within the MALS Division. Ms. Audette was one of two Deputy Associate Solicitors in the MALS Division from 2007-2012, and she initially came to SOL as an advisory attorney in the Employment and Training Legal Services Division in 2003.
Prior to entering federal service, Ms. Audette was Counsel in the law firm of Hogan and Hartson LLP in Washington, D.C., practicing in the Education and Litigation Practice Groups, after serving as an Associate with that firm. Prior to entering the legal field, Ms. Audette worked for non-profit organizations as a magazine editor, writer, business manager and member of organizational management.
Ms. Audette graduated from Georgetown Law Center in 1993 and from Georgetown University in 1981, both magna cum laude.
April Nelson
Associate Solicitor
Mine Safety and Health
April Nelson serves as the Associate Solicitor for the Mine Safety and Health (MSH) Division. Ms. Nelson joined DOL in 1998, working within the Division of Employment and Training Legal Services at SOL until 2003. During that time, one of Ms. Nelson's major clients was the Job Corps program; and among other things, Ms. Nelson helped Job Corps centers comply with HHS's 2000 Privacy Rule implementing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Ms. Nelson also assisted with a number of cost disallowance cases and other litigation and disputes regarding ETA grants, contracts and cooperative agreements. Ms. Nelson moved in 2003 to the Division of Management and Administrative Legal Services, where she served as the Counsel for Administrative Law until 2006. There, Ms. Nelson advised other Divisions regarding a wide variety of rulemaking and administrative law matters, and also was the Director for FOIA Appeals. In September of 2006, Ms. Nelson moved to serve as the Counsel for Standards and Legal Advice in the MSH Division. There, in the wake of three major mine disasters early in 2006 and the passage of the MINER Act in June of 2006, Ms. Nelson helped MSHA publish a number of final rules to improve mine safety and health. In December of 2016, Ms. Nelson was appointed Associate Solicitor for the MSH Division.
Ms. Nelson graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School with a J.D. in 1994 and from Wheaton College with a B.A. in psychology in 1990.
Edmund C. Baird
Associate Solicitor
Occupational Safety & Health
Edmund C. Baird has been the Associate Solicitor for the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Division since February 2019. The OSH Division represents the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in appellate matters before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and the federal courts of appeal. In addition, it provides legal advice to OSHA in rulemaking, whistleblower, and enforcement matters.
Mr. Baird joined the OSH Division in 2007 as a staff attorney, was named Counsel for Standards in 2014, and became Deputy Associate Solicitor in 2017. Ed has worked on a number of OSHA rulemakings including the 2012 Hazard Communication revisions and the 2016 Walking-Working Surfaces revisions; handled appellate cases defending OSHA standards and citations; and provided advice to OSHA on a wide variety of programs ranging from whistleblower protection to Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories. He was also a member of the U.S. delegation to the UN Sub-Committee of Experts on the Globally Harmonized System for the Labelling and Classification of Chemicals from 2012-2018.
Before joining the Solicitor’s Office, Mr. Baird was in private practice in St. Louis, Missouri, and Rochester, New York. He also handled civil appeals for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
He received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 1995 and his B.A. from the University of Rochester in 1989.
Peter J. Constantine
Associate Solicitor
Office of Legal Counsel
Peter Constantine serves as the Associate Solicitor for Legal Counsel. In this capacity, he leads the Office of Legal Counsel, which analyzes pending legislation impacting the Department; helps prepare testimony by Departmental policy officials; and assists in drafting legislative proposals to accomplish Departmental priorities. It also provides legal advice related to administrative law and procedure. Mr. Constantine serves as the Department’s Alternate Designated Agency Ethics Official and manages its ethics program. He also manages the Office of the Solicitor’s Honors Attorney Program. He previously served with DOL as the Deputy Associate Solicitor for Civil Rights and Labor-Management and as Counsel for Labor Relations. In addition, Mr. Constantine served with the U.S. Department of Housing and Development in a variety of capacities including Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer; Associate General Counsel for Ethics, Appeals and Personnel Law; and Assistant General Counsel for Personnel Law. He has served as an attorney with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Merit Systems Protection Board, Federal Labor Relations Authority. He received a BA in Urban Studies from the College of Wooster and a JD from American University.
G. William Scott
Associate Solicitor
Plan Benefits Security
G. William Scott became the Associate Solicitor for the Plan Benefits Security Division (PBSD) on July 10, 2014. He leads the Division in its mission to protect the rights of America's workers to their pension and health benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) through federal court enforcement litigation, appellate and amicus curiae litigation, and advice and opinions with respect to regulations, sub-regulatory guidance, and interpretations of ERISA. He previously served in the Division as Deputy Associate Solicitor, Senior Trial Attorney, and Trial Attorney.
Prior to joining the Office of the Solicitor in 1986, Mr. Scott represented indigent individuals as a staff attorney at the Neighborhood Legal Services Program in Washington, D.C., and as the director of a law school clinical program. While he handled a wide range of cases, Mr. Scott primarily advocated for the rights of tenants and individuals seeking benefits under a variety of statutory entitlement programs. He represented plaintiffs in class actions challenging the regulations and practices of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the D.C. Department of Human Services. Immediately before coming to the Division, Mr. Scott was an Assistant Attorney General in Maryland enforcing consumer protection laws.
Mr. Scott clerked for the Honorable Shellie F. Bowers, D.C. Superior Court, and is a graduate of Catholic University Law School (1977) and Duke University (1974).
Regional Offices
Maia Fisher
Regional Solicitor
Region I, Boston
Maia S. Fisher has served as the Regional Solicitor for Region I since September of 2018. She oversees civil trial litigation and legal advice and support for U.S. Department of Labor matters arising in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Previous, Ms. Fisher served almost a decade in the National Office Division of Black Lung and Longshore Legal Services. During her time as Associate Solicitor, Ms. Fisher led the Division’s litigation, regulation, legislation, and legal advice practices.
Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Ms. Fisher practiced law at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. She also served as a law clerk to Judge Ralph K. Winter of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and to Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida.
Ms. Fisher earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Jeffrey S. Rogoff
Regional Solicitor
Region II, New York
Jeffrey Rogoff has served as the New York Regional Solicitor since 2014. He supervises the New York office, which oversees civil trial litigation and legal advice matters arising in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Notably the office has among the largest OSHA and Wage Hour practices in the Department while it maintains busy practices in ERISA, OFCCP, Whistleblower, and multiple other statutes.
Mr. Rogoff joined the New York Regional Solicitor’s Office in 2000. Before his appointment as Regional Solicitor, Mr. Rogoff served as Acting Regional Solicitor, Deputy Regional Solicitor, Senior Trial Attorney, and Attorney. As a trial attorney and senior trial attorney Mr. Rogoff litigated in all Departmental program areas, typically on some of the office’s highest profile and complex matters. Notably, Mr. Rogoff prevailed as lead counsel in a highly publicized OSHA trial relating to an employee fatality by trampling at a day-after-Thanksgiving sale.
Under Mr. Rogoff’s leadership, the New York office has experienced outstanding successes across all program areas. For example in the Wage Hour program, the office recovered more than $9.8 million in wages and penalties to over 1,500 employees at 17 restaurant locations throughout NY and NJ. In ERISA, following a 17-day trial, the office won a judgment for $9.485 million for trustees’ ESOP stock overvaluation. In OSHA, the office has obtained numerous national and regional corporate-wide settlements, covering hundreds of workplaces, to secure enhanced protections for thousands of employees from serious hazards such as moving machine parts, confined spaces, and obstructed emergency exits. In OFCCP, the office has litigated and helped negotiate multiple multi-dollar settlements, including two $9.8 million agreements in the finance industry and the largest OFCCP settlement with an academic institution to date.
Before joining the Solicitor’s office, Mr. Rogoff served as a judicial clerk in the Southern District of New York and litigated for six years at both small and large New York City law firms.
Mr. Rogoff received his law degree from New York University and bachelor’s degree from SUNY-Binghamton (Binghamton University).
Oscar L. Hampton III
Regional Solicitor
Region III, Philadelphia
Oscar Hampton has been the Regional Solicitor for the Philadelphia Regional Solicitor's Office since September of 2014. He directs both the principal office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the branch office in Arlington, Virginia, overseeing 66 attorneys and support personnel. Mr. Hampton is responsible for among the nation's largest OSHA and MSHA programs, as well as extremely active ERISA, Wage/Hour, OFCCP and Whistleblower programs and one of three MSHA Backlog programs in the DOL. Since taking this position, Mr. Hampton has significantly increased both the amount of recoveries and the number of enforcement actions in every program area in the Region. Prior to becoming the Regional Solicitor, Mr. Hampton served as the Counsel for Occupational Safety and Health and as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Kansas City Regional Solicitor's Office for more than 25 years. As a Senior Trial Attorney, he obtained numerous criminal convictions in OSHA matters and was appointed as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for DOJ in a criminal matter. Mr. Hampton also obtained the largest civil penalty awarded by the OSH Review Commission in an adjudicated case in the history of Region VII.
Prior to joining DOL, Mr. Hampton worked as a Civil Rights attorney at the EEOC.
Mr. Hampton graduated from the University of Missouri in 1986 with a J.D. and in 1983 with a B.A. in both Philosophy and Religion and Political Science.
Tremelle I. Howard
Regional Solicitor
Region IV, Atlanta
Tremelle I. Howard was appointed on March 1, 2020, to serve as the Regional Solicitor for the Atlanta Regional Solicitor's Office. She leads the Atlanta Regional Solicitor’s Office and its branch office in Nashville with more than 50 staff members who are committed to providing legal support to Department of Labor agencies for matters arising in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. Prior to becoming the Regional Solicitor of Labor in Atlanta, Ms. Howard served as the Deputy Regional Solicitor, Counsel for MSHA and a trial attorney.
As Deputy Regional Solicitor for four years, she had direct oversight of administrative and financial operations. She also supervised all Internal Labor Relations and FOIA matters initiated in the eight states serviced by the Regional Office. As MSHA Counsel, Ms. Howard supervised complex mine and safety litigation. She also worked closely with the MSHA Backlog team leveraging the additional staff to ensure global resolutions were obtained wherever possible. Before serving as MSHA Counsel, Ms. Howard served as a trial attorney for three years and she litigated in all program areas.
Prior to joining the Solicitor's Office, Ms. Howard worked in local government and private practice. She is proudest of her accomplishments after her clerkship as an Assistant and Deputy Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia where she practiced Civil Rights and Labor and Employment Law. There, Ms. Howard litigated more than a dozen federal jury trials honing her trial and advocacy skills which inform much of her litigation practice and strategy today.
Ms. Howard is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and University of Maryland. She also clerked for the Honorable Doris A. Smith-Ribner, Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.
Christine Heri
Regional Solicitor
Region V, Chicago
Christine Heri was appointed on January 14, 2013, to serve as the Regional Solicitor for the Chicago Regional Solicitor's Office. Prior to becoming the Regional Solicitor of Labor in Chicago, Ms. Heri served as the Chicago Counsel for ERISA for three years, where she had direct oversight of all ERISA litigation developed and initiated in the ten states serviced by the Regional Office.
Prior to serving as Counsel for ERISA, Ms. Heri was a Senior Trial Attorney for seven years beginning in 2004. In that position, she represented the Secretary of Labor in significant and complex enforcement matters in U.S. District Court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Ms. Heri provided legal advice and analysis to federal agency clients regarding novel issues under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), the Bankruptcy Code and other statutes enforced by the Department of Labor.
For 13 years, Ms. Heri served as a Trial Attorney in the Regional Solicitor's Office, litigating cases under ERISA, USERRA, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the Bankruptcy Code and other statutes enforced by the Department of Labor.
Before joining the Solicitor's Office, Ms. Heri worked as an Investigator for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), investigating and enforcing the pension and welfare benefits laws under ERISA.
Ms. Heri graduated from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1990 and from Aprilana College in 1987.
John Rainwater
Regional Solicitor
Region VI, Dallas
John Rainwater was appointed Regional Solicitor in Dallas, Texas on January 19, 2020. The Dallas region includes a branch office in Denver, Colorado. The Dallas and Denver offices have approximately 50 attorneys and staff who handle all DOL legal matters in the Southwest and Rocky Mountain states including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Prior to becoming Regional Solicitor, Mr. Rainwater served as Associate Regional Solicitor in Denver from 2008-2020 during which time he played a key role in the formation of the MSHA Litigation Backlog Project. Mr. Rainwater served as an SOL staff attorney in Denver and Washington, D.C. from 1999-2008 handling many OSHA, MSHA, Wage and Hour, and OFCCP litigation matters.
Mr. Rainwater graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1997. That same year, he earned a Master of Social Work from the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. He graduated in 1991 from Saint John’s University with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. A native of Oklahoma, Mr. Rainwater is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation.
Susan Gillet Kumli
Acting Regional Solicitor
Region IX, San Francisco
Biography not available.