Melanie L. Paul

Melanie L. Paul is a principal in the Atlanta, Georgia, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. She is co-leader of the firm’s Workplace Safety and Health practice group. Her practice focuses on occupational safety and health compliance, advice and litigation. Melanie's clients benefit from her unique inside experience as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for more than a decade. 

During Melanie’s time with the DOL, she regularly appeared at hearings and trials before federal administrative tribunals and federal district courts throughout the southeastern U.S. in matters of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) law, Mine Safety and Health (MSHA) law, whistleblower and federal wage and hour matters. She also defended agency management against allegations of employment discrimination and prohibited personnel practices before the EEOC and the MSPB. While at the DOL, Melanie was the Criminal OSHA Coordinator for the southeastern region and worked with U.S. Department of Justice to have Occupational Safety and Health cases criminally prosecuted. 

Prior to working at the DOL, Melanie gained invaluable trial experience as an Assistant District Attorney in Fulton County, Atlanta, Georgia where she tried felony criminal jury cases. She also was a law clerk to U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda T. Walker for the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia, where she worked on predominantly employment discrimination cases.

During law school, Melanie served as an executive articles editor of the Washington University Law Quarterly (since renamed the Washington University Law Review) and also had her Note published in the law review.

Honors and Recognitions

• Chambers USA, “Labor & Employment” (2024)

Published Works

• “Constitutional Amnesia: Judicial Validation of Probable Cause for Arresting the Wrong Person on a Facially Valid Warrant,” 79 Washington University Law Quarterly 1227 (2001)