David S. Fortney

David S. Fortney is a co-founder of FortneyScott, a Washington, D.C.-based, woman-owned law firm counseling and advising clients on the full spectrum of workplace related matters, including employment discrimination and labor matters, compliance programs, government contracting, executive employment and compensation, international dispute resolution and counseling matters, and developing strategies for avoiding or responding to workplace-related crises. Mr. Fortney has a broad-based practice representing and counseling employers and executives in employment and labor matters, including equal employment opportunity requirements, wage and hour matters, federal contractor's affirmative action and non-discrimination obligations, collective bargaining, workplace health and safety, and pension and welfare benefits. He brings experience from the public and private sectors in advising clients on these issues, and he frequently represents clients before the U.S. Department of Labor's agencies, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board. Mr. Fortney's litigation experience includes obtaining defense verdicts for employers in extended jury trials, as well as designing and implementing Alternative Dispute Resolution procedures to help resolve employment claims in an efficient and fair manner.

Before co-founding the firm, Mr. Fortney served as the chief legal officer of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. during the first Bush Administration. As Acting Solicitor of Labor, he was responsible for enforcing over 140 laws regulating the nation's workplaces and managing an agency with 800 attorneys and support staff. He advised Secretaries of Labor Elizabeth Dole and Lynn Martin and the Department of Labor's agencies on a broad range of legal, policy, legislative, regulatory and enforcement issues. The major Department of Labor agencies Mr. Fortney represented included the Wage and Hour Division, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Mr. Fortney has testified on several occasions before the U.S. Congress. He most recently testified on behalf of the national employers' O.T. Coalition in support of the Department of Labor’s issuance of revised FLSA "white-collar" exemption regulations. He has also testified before a state legislative committee on wage and hour matters.

Mr. Fortney is a frequent lecturer and writer on employment-related topics, including appearances on CNN, CBS and Fox News.