Jacqueline R. Scott

JACQUELINE R. SCOTT

CO-FOUNDER

1909 K Street, NW, Suite 330, Washington, DC 20006

Tele: (202) 689-1200 | Fax: (202) 689-1209

jscott@fortneyscott.com

Ms. Scott is a co-founder of FortneyScott, where her diverse practice focuses on business, international, and workplace matters.


She counsels U.S. and foreign-based clients on complying with U.S. workplace and tax laws and assists U.S. employers in expanding outside the U.S. She regularly advises clients, many of which are federal government contractors, on workplace investigations; government procurement and related employment issues; prevailing wages under the Service Contract and Davis Bacon Acts and related matters; worker classification issues; and compliance with the wage and hour requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act and related state laws. Ms. Scott also advises U.S. and global employers on pay transparency and pay equity laws including developing compliance strategies across the patchwork of requirements, modeling legally compliant compensation analyses, developing remediation strategies, and confirming accuracy of mandatory reporting.


Ms. Scott is a frequent lecturer on issues of international labor and employment law, including expatriate and secondment agreements, overtime, minimum wage, data privacy, worker classification status, international tax, and human rights. She holds key leadership positions in international professional organizations, including, having served as President of the Union Internationale des Avocats (International Association of Lawyers or UIA) from 2023-2024 and now serving as the UIA’s Immediate Past President. UIA is an international association of lawyers committed to the protection of human rights, including worker’s rights and the defense of their universal nature, including, specifically, the defense of lawyers’ human rights in protecting the human rights of others. Ms. Scott formerly served as Director General of the UIA’s Institute for the Rule of Law (UIA-IROL) and has also served as a member of the ITC Pro-Bono Committee on International Model Contracts for Exporting SME’s.


Ms. Scott has significant experience and expertise in adjudicating both U.S. and international commercial and employment disputes. She served for many years as the United States’ Member and First Vice President of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal, the seven-member, independent appellate forum of last resort that adjudicated claims made by United Nations employees worldwide. Drawing on years of experience in the securities industry as an attorney for an international financial institution, Ms. Scott has served in the United States as an arbitrator for the securities industry with the National Association of Securities Dealers.


Ms. Scott’s workplace investigations practice includes conducting workplace investigations for employers in the private, not-for-profit, and public sectors. She has investigated sensitive matters involving fraud and mismanagement; harassment and discrimination; and matters arising under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.


Ms. Scott’s wage and hour practice includes advising and representing clients, including not-for-profit organizations, on matters involving federal and state prevailing wage issues; and the FLSA, including minimum wage and overtime obligations and exemptions, classification of positions as exempt or non-exempt, overtime requirements for non-exempt employees and compensation strategies and policies for exempt employees. She also advises clients on matters involving the classification of workers as employees or independent contractors.


Formerly, Ms. Scott was in-house counsel to Merrill Lynch, an international brokerage firm, advising and litigating on matters involving securities and commodities compliance, various broker-dealer issues, and related employment matters. She also has extensive experience in the practice of corporate and international tax law, including project and tax-exempt bond finance, as well as ERISA, with Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon, in New York, NY and Chadbourne & Parke, in Washington, D.C. Ms. Scott has trial and appellate litigation experience in state and federal courts. She formerly served as the General Counsel to the Junior League of Philadelphia.

Firm Practices


Professional Activities

  • Immediate Past President, Union Internationale des Avocats (International Association of Lawyers or UIA) - 2024-2025 
  • President, Union Internationale des Avocats (International Association of Lawyers or UIA) - 2023-2024
  • Director-General, Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA)’s Institute for the Rule of Law (UIA-IROL) – 2016-2022
  • Member, American Employment Law Conference (AELC)
  • Member, First Vice-President, United Nations Administrative Tribunal, 2003-2009
  • Former Arbitrator (Public), National Association of Securities Dealers


Admitted to Practice

  • District of Columbia
  • Connecticut
  • New York
  • Pennsylvania
  • Virginia
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
  • Supreme Court of the United States


Education

  • Georgetown University Law Center
    (LL.M in International Law/Arbitration/Tax)
  • New York University School of Law (LL.M. in Taxation)
  • Vanderbilt University School of Law (J.D.)
  • Vanderbilt University (B.A., cum laude)


Languages

  • French
  • Spanish
August 27, 2026
Join FortneyScott attorneys on Thursday, September 10, 2026 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm EDT for a timely and practical webinar on the revised OFCCP regulations and how contractors should respond. To register, click here . On August 21, 2026, the OFCCP finally published its final rules upending long-standing affirmative action requirements for federal contractors. While the elimination of EO 11246 regulations was expected, the substantial changes to Section 503 were less expected. By September 21, contractors must not only update their systems to remove now banned requirements but also determine how they will meet their affirmative action requirements without data collection. We will break down the most important developments, explain which obligations remain in place, and highlight practical steps organizations can take now to reduce risk, preserve defensible compliance practices, and prepare for what comes next. In this webinar, you will learn how to: Identify the OFCCP changes most likely to affect your affirmative action program strategy; Evaluate how revised Section 503 requirements may affect disability-related data collection, outreach, and documentation; Understand continuing VEVRAA obligations for protected veteran compliance. Manage transition issues for current and upcoming AAP cycles; and Prioritize practical next steps for policies, records, audits, and stakeholder communication s. To register for this webinar, please CLICK HERE .
August 20, 2026
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will publish in the Federal Register the three final rules impacting federal contractor regulations on Friday, August 21, 2026.  Executive Order 11246 regulations – DOL finalized the rescission of its regulations for EO 11246, effective October 26, 2026, to eliminate the obligations of federal contractors to prepare affirmative action plans based on race and sex, in addition to nondiscrimination provisions, and additional compliance requirements. This is to align with EO 14373, wherein President Trump rescinded EO 11246. Section 503 of Rehabilitation Act – DOL finalized the elimination of the disability self-identification requirements as well as the 7% utilization goal. In addition, the CC-305 Form will be eliminated. DOL holds that the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers, including federal contractors, from collecting voluntary disability identification from applicants and employees. The nondiscrimination and reasonable accommodation requirements are maintained. Contractors with 50 or more employees and $50,000 or more in contracts will continue to be required to prepare affirmative action plans and to assess their outreach and recruitment. DOL moved the administrative procedures provisions from EO 11246 regulations here. VEVRAA – DOL’s revisions to the VEVRAA regulations were mostly technical, retaining the obligation to provide voluntary self-identification of veterans and to prepare affirmative action plans. DOL added the administrative procedures to these regulations and updated the jurisdictional threshold from $150,000 to $200,000. Please contact your FortneyScott attorney or email us at info@fortneyscott.com for more information.
July 21, 2026
The EEOC voted 2 to 1 on Tuesday, July 21st to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to rescind the requirement for employers and other covered entities to file an annual report with the EEOC summarizing aggregate data on their employees’ race and sex (reports known respectively as the EEO-1, EEO-2, EEO-3, EEO-4, EEO-5, and EEO-6 reports or EEO Data Reports). This includes the rescission of recordkeeping requirements related to these reports.  The proposal states that the Commission has determined the EEO Reports are inconsistent with equal employment opportunity law, may raise constitutional concerns, and that the collection of data is not narrowly tailored or necessary to enforce anti-discrimination statutes. EEOC determined that the reports, which had been collected since, 1966, have limited value, which was outweighed by the significant burdens they impose on employers and on the Commission. Once the NPRM is published in the Federal Register, individuals will have only 30 days to submit comments on the 60-page proposal. The Institute for Workforce Equality is planning to submit comments. Please contact your FortneyScott attorney or email us at info@fortneyscott.com with any thoughts you have on the proposed rescission, or on employer record-keeping obligations generally.
June 25, 2026
On Wednesday, June 24, 2026, the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) extended EEOC’s information collection under the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP) through June 29, 2029. UGESP requires employers covered by Title VII to collect and maintain records on the race, sex and ethnicity of those impacted by their employment selection procedures but does not require employers to report the data. EEOC and other enforcing agencies can then demand to see such data in connection with any investigation of employment discrimination. Please contact your FortneyScott attorney or email us at info@fortneyscott.com for additional information.
June 11, 2026
The Directive is driving a significant shift in compensation reporting and transparency across the EU, and requires employers to disclose salary ranges to applicants, share internal pay-setting criteria, and conduct gender pay reporting. With the June 7, 2026, deadline for Member States to transpose the Directive into national law, employers need to understand their compliance obligations and prepare for unresolved implementation questions. In this webinar, FortneyScott attorneys will help U.S. companies with operations in the EU understand the Directive’s requirements, including how they differ from U.S. compliance frameworks. We will discuss best practice lessons that can be adopted from U.S. pay transparency and reporting laws and, importantly, provide key contrasts of the U.S. practices that are not applicable in the EU. Key topics include: The Directive’s scope and coverage Reporting obligations under the Directive Status of Member State transposition Practical compliance steps employers can take now Who should attend. This webinar is designed for in-house counsel, HR leaders, and senior professionals at multi-national organizations responsible for compensation, benefits, and employment law compliance.
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