Worker's Compensation

        Our attorneys hail from a wide variety of geographical locations, backgrounds and law schools. Some worked in claims handling positions or as managers or supervisors, prior to attending law school, giving them a practical perspective on the legal problems our clients face. Each of our attorneys strive to handle the Labor, Workers Compensation and Employment Law issues faced by our clients with a practical, business oriented approach designed to achieve the client’s objective in a particular matter as efficiently as possible. 

        The firm represents self-insured employers, insurance companies, and third party administrators. We also represent employers against whom a Workers Compensation case has been filed, who do not have insurance coverage in place. 

        Our expertise and continuing focus upon employment-related matters assures our clients of reduced start-up times, greater cost efficiencies, and better outcomes. Because of our size and experience, we are able to offer employers advice in all of the myriad areas of Workers Compensation, Longshore Act, Labor, Employment Law, and Insurance Defense. 

        Because our Workers Compensation practice group specializes in these areas, we have developed an expertise that allows us to identify issues quickly and handle matters ranging from simple questions to complex litigation in an efficient manner. We also tailor our approach so as to address the practical goals and concerns of our clients, whether it be the fastest or least expensive resolution of a problem, setting an example for others in the work force, or establishing a new principle of law.

Our practice areas fall within three broad categories:

Preventive Services
        In the preventive area, we assist clients in drafting and implementing employment policies and procedures, we provide advice to employers on terminations, discipline, response to harassment and discrimination complaints, protection of trade secrets, and compliance with the myriad of laws that affect employers, and we assist our non-union employers in staying that way.

Defense of Claims
        We represent employers before all Federal and State Courts, Commissions and Administrative Agencies. We are experienced in handling jury trials, employee lawsuits, unfair labor practice charges and compliance actions by various government agencies, as well as matters before private arbitrators. Wherever possible in court litigation we seek an early termination of the case via motions to dismiss or a summary judgment. We also seek to perform an early and objective evaluation of each claim to assist our clients in determining the best and most economical handling manner.

Services for Unionized Employers
        We provide a full range of services for our unionized clients, including defense of unfair labor practice charges, assistance with collective bargaining, grievance arbitration, and multi-employer benefit plan issues, as well as strike planning and defense. We also provide advice and assistance to our unionized clients whose employees have indicated they no longer wish to be union-represented. 

        Although our attorneys are skilled advocates with substantial experience in successfully trying cases and arguing appeals, we recognize that the most aggressive (and expensive) litigation strategy may not always be the best solution to a client’s problem. We also recognize that most clients would prefer to spend less money on legal services than spend more. In every matter we handle, therefore, we seek to identify the client’s primary business objective, design a solution to fit that objective, and then implement that solution in the most efficient manner possible.

        We also place a high priority on responsiveness to our clients’ needs. Lawyers often have a bad reputation for being difficult to reach and for taking too much time to return telephone calls. We recognize that many Workers Compensation, Labor and Employment problems arise without much prior warning and require an immediate response. We return calls quickly, we have systems in place to locate attorneys who are out of the office or we can provide a back up attorney who can respond immediately. 

        Additionally, while Courts and Legislatures continue to expand the scope of employee rights, we recognize that employers have important rights, too. We work with our clients to maximize their ability to exercise those rights, such as the right to aggressively screen applicants for employment, the right to insist that employees acknowledge that they are employed at will where appropriate, the right to require arbitration of employee disputes, the right to implement comprehensive policies regulating conduct in the workplace, the right to discipline employees where necessary, the right to terminate employees who perform poorly or with misconduct, and the right to educate employees about the benefits of remaining union free. In advising our clients, too, we seek to find a way for the client to achieve its business objective with the least amount of legal risk, rather than simply identifying all of the potential exposure that might result should the client do what it proposes.

        We have a broad and diverse client base. We represent a wide range of public and private employers. Some clients are large multinational concerns with thousands of employees; others are smaller entrepreneurial businesses. Our clients include employers in the agricultural, banking, broadcasting, construction, education, health care, hospitality, insurance, manufacturing, professional services, real estate, retail, technology, transportation, and wholesale and distribution industries, as well as insurance companies.