Congratulations to TIPS and our Workers’ Comp Committee for the successful launch of the

College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers with the first induction dinner in Naples, Florida, on

Friday March 2, 2007. The purpose of the College is to recognize the finest practitioners in North

America. The first president of the College will be Hervey Levin who is a former Chair of our

Committee and the current Chair of TIPS’ Governmental Affairs Committee. Inductees in this inaugural class

include past Chairs Sharon Murphy and current Chair-Elect Leonard Nason as well several members of our

Committee. The College is jointly sponsored by TIPS and the Labor and Employment (L&E) Section. The six

member nominating committee was comprised of an equal number of TIPS and L&E lawyers. This first induction

dinner will cap the annual joint Spring meeting of L&E’s OSHA and workers’ comp committees. Twenty years of

workers’ comp experience was required of any nominee. The attempt was made to draw on attorneys from both

TIPS and L&E from all regions of the country. Nominees include judges, academics, and both attorneys who primarily

represent injured workers and those who usually represent employers and insurance companies.

Congratulations are particularly in order for Hervey Levin. In addition to his future role as the first president of

to us will or will not get traction in Washington. Topics include asbestos, medical malpractice, ABA day (April 18-

19), the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), Medicare set asides, and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’

Compensation Act and its regulations.

Special thanks and congratulations are owed to our new Chair-Elect Todd Seelig. Todd is a judge in

Philadelphia. He is also president of the association of workers’ comp judges in Pennsylvania. He recently led the

successful fight for increased pay for workers’ comp judges in Pennsylvania. Although this took much of his free

time he has created a continuing legal education teleconference on Medicare set asides which builds on his live

program on this topic at Staff Counsel’s multi-day educational event in September. Panelists for the teleconference

will be Todd, William Winslow from Los Angeles, and a Pennsylvania practitioner and West author.

the ABA Midyear meeting. The board was looking for a TIPS’ general committee to feature. Todd suggested

Workers’ Comp. The board liked the idea and decided we would be the featured Committee in the May issue.

In Miami, Committee members participated with the meetings of two groups on work with the potential for significant

impact on workers’ compensation. These are the TIPS Task Force on Federal Involvement in Insurance

Regulation Modernization (FIIRM) and the National Conference of Commissioners for Uniform State Laws

(NCCUSL) which is adding language regarding liability and workers’ comp to its Uniform Volunteer Healthcare

Practitioners’ Act (UVEHPA). NCCUSL is looking for consensus on the issues of civil immunity and workers’

comp coverage for the healthcare volunteers. The FIIRM task force is looking at congressional activity on TRIA,

the McCarron-Ferguson antitrust exemption for regulated insurance carriers, and an Optional Federal Charter

which would allow carriers to avoid state-by-state regulation by opting into a federal regulatory system. Other

issues the Task Force is addressing include health care and global warming. TRIA provides a stop gap back up of

$70 Billion for US insurers if there are losses like 9/11 caused by foreign based terrorists. TRIA is due to sunset in

less than a year on December 31, 2007. The major national insurance companies and reinsurers have about $30 billion

to cover the next terrorist attack. This amount could be exhausted just with workers’ compensation benefits if

there was a city wide attack in a major metropolitan area. So TRIA is necessary. The ABA House of Delegates on

February 12 just approved a position statement which urged legislation that would continue TRIA-like protections.

Some of our Committee leaders including myself, Chair-Elect Leonard Nason, Chair-Elect Designee Todd

“facilitated” strategic planning session in Laguna Beach. Each of TIPS 30 General Committees are supposed to

“working group.” Our training was tacked on to the 31st Annual Mid-Winter Symposium put on by six of these

Committees: Life; Employee Benefits; Health & Disability; Insurance Regulation; Employment Law; and

Seelig, Law Student Vice-Chair Miniya Miskal, and Membership Vice-Chair Mike Fish just completed a three-hour

complete one of these sessions. We went through ours in Laguna along with the seven other Committees in our

Corporate Counsel. The final member of our working group was Self-Insured and Risk Managers (SIRM) Chaired

by David Cohen of the LA Angels. SIRM and WC were co-sponsors of the symposium. Both SIRM and WC hope

to continue and even to expand our roles with this symposium. The program is always in January. It often is in

Florida and it will be in South Florida in January 2008. I would encourage all members of our Committee to attend

that meeting.

We are planning our own free standing workers’ compensation and employer’s liability conference. We are

looking at the ABA MidYear Meeting in Beverly Hills in February 2008 or the TIPS Spring Meeting in Las Vegas

in May 2008 as our two first choices. The second annual induction dinner of the Workers’ Compensation College

will be held in conjunction with the program. Our tentative plan would be CLE programs on Thursday afternoon

and Friday morning with the College dinner on Thursday night. TIPS Employment Law and one or two other general

committees might join our free standing program. We would offer the same one full day of workers’ comp

CLE, but this joint program would bring more people and offer all attendees more choices, plus certain costs, such

as brochures and other promotional costs, would be shared. Let us know if you have suggestions for topics, speakers,

or anything else. By beginning to plan now, we hope to make this conference such a success that it will continue

for many years.

Law student involvement is something I plan to emphasize in my final six months as Chair. I went to the

University of Miami law school and spoke along with TIPS law student member Jim Fletcher, ABA staff member

Linda Wiley and two local attorneys. In San Francisco at the ABA annual meeting in the first week in August, we

plan to replicate this experience with visits to Golden Gate, USF, and Hastings. We are also planning a party. In

Miami, I spoke with one dean and the deans’ABA staff person and their response was positive. The plan is to promote

our Committee’s CLE which is set for Friday, August 10, at 8:30 a.m. But I will also promote the fifteen other

TIPS CLE programs. Law students get free admission to these programs. Our hope is that this effort with the students

will increase attendance at our programs, but more importantly we hope it will increase law student and

young lawyer membership in TIPS and our Workers’ Comp Committee.

This Annual Meeting CLE is very important. This is the first workers’ comp CLE at an annual meeting in several

years. We have a very ambitious program. A moderator and seven speakers in 90 minutes will cover Medicare

set asides, offsets, liens, ADA, FMLA, OSHA, independent contractors, carve outs, PEOs, and insurance alternatives.

We have promised to offer “must know” cutting edge information. Please join us in San Francisco at this program.

If you can, please help us get bay area attorneys and their institutional clients to the program. I hope to see

you at the TIPS Spring Meeting in Newport Beach on May 17, but we really need you at the ABAAnnual Meeting

on August 9. See you there.

By: Leonard Nason, Bedford, MA lnason1750@aol.com

The Committee’s 2007 annual meeting program, entitled “Must Know Developments in

Workers’ Compensation and Employers’ Liability Law,” will address emerging and evolutionary

issues related to Immigration Reform Efforts, Medicare Set Aside Developments, Social Security Offsets, Third

Party Liens, capitated medical reimbursement fee schedules, Impact of Aging Workforce, continued increase of

violent crimes occurring in the workplace, the interaction between ADA, FMLA, Workers’ Compensation, OSHA,

and other such similar state and federal laws. We will examine the myriad of issues arising out of domestic and

international commerce and its impact on Workers’ Compensation Claims, such as jurisdictional disputes, independent

contractor/employee distinctions, alternative dispute resolution carve-out programs, the potential increase

in spread of contagious diseases, the impact of domestic partner marriages/civil unions, collective bargaining

agreements, return to work programs, and MORE! In any given workers’ compensation claim you are likely to

encounter one or more of the above issues. If you are involved in any aspect of workers’ compensation, or employment

law, this is a must attend program.

Mark Baugh, Nashville, TN: ADA, FMLA, etc.

Norton J. Cohen, Detroit, MI: Contagious disease like blood borne pathogens (anthrax mail, SARS, avian flu,

West Nile, etc.)

Michael Fish, Birmingham, AL, and Judge Todd B. Seelig, Philadelphia, PA: Medicare Set Asides and CMS

Anthony J. MacAuley, Los Angeles, CA: Independent contractor and immigration issues

Diana L. Wann, Lebanon, IN: The impact of an aging workforce

Bruce Wood, AIA: Insurance matters

Program Moderator: Leonard Y. Nason, Bedford, MA. Additional Sponsors: Corporate Counsel, and Labor &

Employment (Workers’ Compensation section)

On Friday, March 2, 2007, the first class of Fellows was inducted into The College of Workers’ Compensation

Lawyers. The Induction took place during the Labor & Employment Section’s Workers’ Compensation Committee,

2007 Midwinter Meeting at the Naples Grande Resort & Club in Naples, Florida. Attorney Hervey Levin has been

appointed to be the first President of the College.

Next year the induction dinner will take place at the TIPS ABA Midyear Meeting in Beverley Hills, CA.

Thereafter, the Induction dinner will alternate between the Labor & Employment Section’s Workers’ Compensation

Committee 2007 Midwinter Meeting, and the TIPS ABA Midyear Meeting.

The College of Worker’s Compensation Lawyers has been established to honor those attorneys who have distinguished

themselves in their practice in the field of worker’s compensation. Members have been nominated for

serving as judges, or acting for the benefit of all in overseeing agencies and developing legislation. These

individuals have convinced their peers, the bar, bench and public that they possess the highest professional qualifications

and ethical standards, character, integrity, professional expertise and leadership. They have a commitment

to fostering and furthering the objectives of the College and have shown significant evidence of scholarship, teaching,

lecturing, and/or distinguished published writings on worker’s compensation or related fields of law. In addition

to these characteristics, a Fellow is expected to display the following traits in their day-to-day practices and

related fields:

A fellow stands out to newer attorneys as a model of professionalism in deportment and advocacy;

A fellow has earned the respect of the bench, opposing counsel and the community;

A fellow displays civility in an adversarial relationship;

A fellow avoids allowing ideological differences to affect civility in negotiations, litigation and other aspects

of law practice;

A fellow demonstrates an active interest in resolving issues;

A fellow is a student of the law;

A fellow has a thirst for knowledge in all areas of the law that affects their representation of their clients in

Worker’s Compensation or their duties in adjudicating cases brought before them;

A fellow actively participates in the state, local and/or national bar.