I have been admitted to the practice of law in California for more than two decades -- since 1989. [State Bar membership detail accessible here:
http://members.calbar.ca.gov/fal/Member/Detail/140338]
During virtually this entire period, I have practiced exclusively in the field of workers compensation insurance premium disputes. My unusual specialization resulted from the fact that I began my post-college (U.C.L.A.,
cum laude, 1976) work career, not as a lawyer fresh out of law school, but rather as a commercial casualty (business liability and workers compensation) insurance underwriting trainee with Aetna Life and Casualty Insurance Company.
After working in both regional and home office underwriting departments for Aetna, I worked as an underwriter for Mission Insurance Group and for Industrial Indemnity Company. I then moved from insurers to risk management consulting firms, where I audited the complex business insurance and related programs of large private and public organizations.
By the time I entered law school in 1984, I had eight years of excellent insurance technical training and work experience. I had also earned my Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (C.P.C.U.) and Associate in Risk Management (A.R.M.) designations. Upon becoming an attorney, I already had thirteen years of training and practical experience in the field of business insurance, and more specifically, in workers compensation underwriting and pricing. It was therefore natural to focus my law practice upon workers compensation insurance underwriting and premium matters.
In 2003, the California Department of Insurance recommended to the Public Members of the Governing Committee of the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB) that they retain me as their first “staff” (as authorized by the California Insurance Code.) I have served continuously in the capacity of retained Staff Counsel ever since.
As my clients are the four Public Members of the WCIRB’s Governing Committee, and not the WCIRB or the Governing Committee itself (which retain other counsel), I am able to accept cases in which the WCIRB has an interest or is an adverse party.
Over more than two decades as an attorney, I have handled many workers compensation premium cases at all levels of dispute: informal negotiation with insurers and rating organizations; alternative dispute resolution (mediation/arbitration); formal administrative appeals to rating agencies; formal appeals to Departments of Insurance; and to the courts, both at the trial level and on appeal, and as to appeals, both from administrative rulings and trial judgments. In addition, my concurrent work during much of this period as an expert witness has also greatly broadened my involvement in large and diverse workers compensation premium issues and disputes.
I am a licensed attorney in California only, but may also serve as an attorney in other jurisdictions by application to the court or regulatory authority. In such cases, I work under the supervision of a locally-licensed attorney.
In California, I can provide full and sole legal representation, or serve as co-counsel, or act in a limited supporting role as technical special counsel, all depending upon the wishes and needs of the client and of other counsel.