Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington announced he is appointing attorney Don Harrison, current Assistant General Counsel for ADOL, to serve as Deputy Secretary / Government Affairs. This will be the first Deputy Secretary appointment since Washington was appointed to his cabinet position in 2014.
Secretary Washington said, “The position of Deputy Secretary has gone unfilled since before my appointment. I felt it necessary to have someone with a strong legal background to help fulfill the vision and goals of moving this agency forward to meet the new challenges of an ever-changing workforce. With his extensive experience in labor and employment law, I am confident that he will prove to be an asset in this new position at ADOL.”
Harrison comes to the post with 20 years of experience as an attorney working in labor law. After law school, he served as a judicial law clerk in Birmingham. Following his clerkship, he worked in private practice for nine years with a focus on Civil Litigation, OSHA, Workers’ Compensation, and related matters.
In his role at ADOL as Assistant General Counsel, Harrison has represented the department in litigation and provided legal counsel to the various divisions of ADOL as well as counseling on personnel, disciplinary, and other employment-related matters. More recently, he served as a Project Leader for ADOL’s pandemic response, working with teams inside and outside of ADOL to implement relevant provisions of the CARES Act, Executive Orders, and other laws and regulations.
Harrison holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Auburn University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama School of Law.
