PEARSON, SIMON, SOTER, WARSHAW & PENNY, LLP WORKERS' COMPENSATION DEPARTMENT
The workers' compensation department of Pearson, Simon, Soter, Warshaw & Penny, LLP was created to offer highly experienced and creative counsel to the sophisticated client. Our small department of three lawyers, whose careers have been dedicated to workers' compensation, combines the aggressiveness of civil litigation with a nuanced understanding of the cost-benefit analysis inherent in every workers' compensation matter.
Our department continues in the tradition established by Clopton, Penny & Brenner, a firm that was created in 1948 and was exclusively devoted to the defense of workers' compensation claims. Ted Penny* was the manager and senior partner for CP&B for 15 years, before joining his specialty with the complex litigation skills of Clifford H. Pearson, Gary S. Soter and Daniel L. Warshaw.
The workers' compensation department of PSW&P regularly appears at the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board offices in Van Nuys, Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Long Beach. We occasionally appear at the WCAB venues throughout the rest of California under special circumstances.
We are pleased to identify among our clients several who are among the most sophisticated in the field of workers' compensation, including Southern California Gas Company, 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company, Mattel Toys, Inc., Northrop Grumman, Chevron, Inc. and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority. Our TPA clients include: CNA ClaimPlus, ESIS, Crawford and Company, Gallagher Bassett, Cambridge, AIG, and Liberty Mutual, among others.
PSW&P offers our clients access to an in-depth understanding of the workers' compensation law and processes. Our firm publishes charts used industry-wide to determine temporary disability, permanent disability and life pension benefits. Copies of our publication are available at no charge to our clients upon request. We have developed our own computer software to allow calculations of life pension potentials at any commutation rate. Annually we organize and present a seminar for our clients during which we discuss recent case law developments and explore workers' compensation topics of interest. Members of the department frequently take part in presentations geared to specific client needs and at client requests. Further, we often speak at workers' compensation industry events, including the California Manufacturers Association annual meeting and at the California Self-Insured Association Annual Symposium. We have provided counsel to a number of lobbyists involved in the legislative arena, including the California Coalition on Workers' Compensation, and the International Business Coalition.
Our philosophy is to thoroughly and aggressively team with our clients to provide the broadest legal understanding of the available defenses and strategies for each claim. The philosophy depends on integrating workers' compensation knowledge with insight into other areas of law for new and innovative approaches.
We take great pride in our ability to establish a relationship of trust with our clients. We earn that trust through prompt and regular communications and by quality control through interactive supervision. We know that the successful management of workers' compensation litigation depends on regular communications between counsel and client. We encourage use of e-mail, regular claims review meetings, and individual case strategy meetings to provide the most effective access in the decision making process. Further, we maintain close relationships with general counsel and our client's appointed civil counsel, and make use of our access to the PSW&P civil litigation experts to provide a seamless, comprehensive approach to overlapping legal issues, such as those that often arise under federal and state employment and anti-discrimination laws.
Our proven abilities in Workers' Compensation defense will assure that our clients receive the best representation available. Utilizing state of the art computers running our proprietary case management system, we deliver a wide range of services at a cost effective rate.
*Certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.
