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Case Law / Legislative Update (2025 Workers' Compensation Conference)
Original Program Date :
Case Law/Legislative Update
Legislative:
Mark Kendall, CopperPoint Insurance Companies
Laura Clymer, Clymer Legal PLLC
Case Law:
Javier Grajeda, Grajeda Weinstein
David Lundmark, Lundmark, Barberich, LaMont & Puig, PC
Mark A Kendall, VP, Legal Services, Copperpoint Insurance Companies
Mark Kendall is currently Vice President of Legal Services with CopperPoint’s Legal and Regulatory Affairs Division. Primary duties include executive management of in-house legal services and coordination of CopperPoint legislative initiatives.
He received his B.A. in Political Science from Northern Arizona University in 1983 and a M.A. in International Relations from the University of Arizona in 1986. He received his J.D. from Arizona State University in 1988 and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Justice Studies in the year 2000. He is a certified specialist in workers’ compensation and has limited his practice to workers’ compensation defense for the past 31 years. He is the current chair of the Workers’ Compensation section of the State Bar of Arizona and actively engaged in continuing legal education in workers’ compensation. Mark is a member of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee and serves as chair of its Insurance and Workers’ Compensation Committee. Mark also serves as an Executive Board Member and Chair of the Finance Committee for Children’s Action Alliance, Arizona’s premier children’s advocacy organization.
He received his B.A. in Political Science from Northern Arizona University in 1983 and a M.A. in International Relations from the University of Arizona in 1986. He received his J.D. from Arizona State University in 1988 and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Justice Studies in the year 2000. He is a certified specialist in workers’ compensation and has limited his practice to workers’ compensation defense for the past 31 years. He is the current chair of the Workers’ Compensation section of the State Bar of Arizona and actively engaged in continuing legal education in workers’ compensation. Mark is a member of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee and serves as chair of its Insurance and Workers’ Compensation Committee. Mark also serves as an Executive Board Member and Chair of the Finance Committee for Children’s Action Alliance, Arizona’s premier children’s advocacy organization.
Laura Clymer, Attorney, Clymer Legal PLLC
Laura Clymer is an attorney and owner at Clymer Legal PLLC. The Tucson, Arizona law firm counsels and represents people in Arizona workers’ compensation and Social Security Disability cases. Laura is certified by the State Bar of Arizona (SBA) as a workers’ compensation legal specialist. She is a member of the Workers’ Compensation Law Advisory Commission She also serves on the executive board of the Arizona Association of Lawyers for Injured Workers (AALIW), an organization that advocates for the rights of injured workers.
Laura, a native Arizonan, graduated from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2013. She was one of 11 in her graduating class of 210 students to receive a Dean’s Award for outstanding contributions and performance at the law school. She passed the Arizona bar exam in July 2013 and was licensed to practice law on December 11, 2013.
In addition to practicing full-time as an Arizona workers’ compensation lawyer and assisting clients in obtaining Social Security Disability benefits, Laura is a part-time, adjunct professor of law practice at the University of Arizona (UA), where she teaches a legal writing, analysis and research class to UA undergraduate law majors and MLS graduate students.
While in law school, Laura was co-editor-in-chief of the Law Journal for Social Justice; served on the executive board of OUTLaw, the gay-straight student alliance; and worked as a research assistant in the ASU Work-Life Policy Unit of the Civil Justice Clinic at the law school. She also completed legal externships for U.S. Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and clerked one summer in Maricopa County Superior Court. She was the 2012 recipient of the R. Kelly Hocker Employment and Labor Law scholarship and a co-recipient of the Jonathan Paul Schubert Memorial scholarship in 2013.
Laura’s writing and research projects while in law school included: researching and contributing to chapter seven in “The Rights of the Accused under the Sixth Amendment” (Paul Marcus et al, American Bar Association, 2012); “Drone Journalism: What Happens When the ‘Intrepid Reporter’ Takes to the Skies?” (Privacy Law seminar paper, spring 2013); and exploring and evaluating “take-home asbestos” liability under Arizona law (Products Liability seminar, graduation paper, fall 2012).
Prior to law school, Laura was a journalist for 18 years. She was the city editor and online content editor for the award-winning Arizona Daily Sun newspaper in Flagstaff from 2001 until August 2010. Laura’s writing, interviewing, and investigative skills honed during her years as a journalist have proved invaluable in making the transition from a journalist to a lawyer.
Laura received her bachelor’s degree in history and communication, cum laude, in 1986 from DePauw University. While at DePauw, she played basketball and softball for the Tigers, wrote for the student newspaper and student yearbook, and was on the steering committee for DePauw’s Little 500 bicycle race.
Outside of work, Laura takes on an active role in her faith community, Casas Adobes Congregational, U.C.C. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Marana, where she served as club president from 2022 to 2024. She’s a loyal fan of UA athletics, and enjoys reading, movies, travel, and most of all, spending time with family and friends over a great meal.
Laura, a native Arizonan, graduated from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2013. She was one of 11 in her graduating class of 210 students to receive a Dean’s Award for outstanding contributions and performance at the law school. She passed the Arizona bar exam in July 2013 and was licensed to practice law on December 11, 2013.
In addition to practicing full-time as an Arizona workers’ compensation lawyer and assisting clients in obtaining Social Security Disability benefits, Laura is a part-time, adjunct professor of law practice at the University of Arizona (UA), where she teaches a legal writing, analysis and research class to UA undergraduate law majors and MLS graduate students.
While in law school, Laura was co-editor-in-chief of the Law Journal for Social Justice; served on the executive board of OUTLaw, the gay-straight student alliance; and worked as a research assistant in the ASU Work-Life Policy Unit of the Civil Justice Clinic at the law school. She also completed legal externships for U.S. Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and clerked one summer in Maricopa County Superior Court. She was the 2012 recipient of the R. Kelly Hocker Employment and Labor Law scholarship and a co-recipient of the Jonathan Paul Schubert Memorial scholarship in 2013.
Laura’s writing and research projects while in law school included: researching and contributing to chapter seven in “The Rights of the Accused under the Sixth Amendment” (Paul Marcus et al, American Bar Association, 2012); “Drone Journalism: What Happens When the ‘Intrepid Reporter’ Takes to the Skies?” (Privacy Law seminar paper, spring 2013); and exploring and evaluating “take-home asbestos” liability under Arizona law (Products Liability seminar, graduation paper, fall 2012).
Prior to law school, Laura was a journalist for 18 years. She was the city editor and online content editor for the award-winning Arizona Daily Sun newspaper in Flagstaff from 2001 until August 2010. Laura’s writing, interviewing, and investigative skills honed during her years as a journalist have proved invaluable in making the transition from a journalist to a lawyer.
Laura received her bachelor’s degree in history and communication, cum laude, in 1986 from DePauw University. While at DePauw, she played basketball and softball for the Tigers, wrote for the student newspaper and student yearbook, and was on the steering committee for DePauw’s Little 500 bicycle race.
Outside of work, Laura takes on an active role in her faith community, Casas Adobes Congregational, U.C.C. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Marana, where she served as club president from 2022 to 2024. She’s a loyal fan of UA athletics, and enjoys reading, movies, travel, and most of all, spending time with family and friends over a great meal.
Javier Contreras Grajeda
Javier Grajeda is a State Bar of Arizona Board Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialist who represents injured workers. He publishes and presents nationally on workers’ rights with a specific focus on the issues impacting workers in the Latino community. He is a bilingual Spanish-speaker and a member of Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association-Los Abogados and the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA). Javier is a board member of the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group (WILG) and Kids’ Chance of Arizona; treasurer of the Arizona Association of Lawyers for Injured Workers (AALIW); and committee member of the Arizona State Bar Workers' Compensation Law Advisory Commission. He is a graduate of University of California Berkeley and Arizona State University Sandra Day O’ Connor College of Law. He is the founder of Grajeda Weinstein, a boutique law firm in central Phoenix specializing in workers’ compensation.
