Total Credits: 5 CLE, 2 Ethics, 1 Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation Specialization, 5 Workers' Compensation Law Specialization
The annual workers' compensation seminar features staples like case law and legislative updates as well as topics on ethics, medical subjects and technology issues.
Co-Chairs:
Hon. Jonathan Hauer, Industrial Commission of Arizona
Javier Puig, Lundmark Barberich LaMont & Puig PC
Agenda
12:00 – 1:00 p.m. A Total Knee Arthroplasty Primer: Your Key Questions Answered
Dr. Perry J. Evangelista, Evangelista Orthopedic Clinic
1:00 – 2:00 p.m. It Ain’t Over Until It’s Over: Petitions to Reopen
R. Todd Lundmark, Lundmark, Barberich, La Mont & Puig PC
Robert Wisniewski, Robert E. Wisniewski, P.C.
2:15 - 4:15 p.m. AI: Practical Uses and Ethical Concerns in a Rapidly Changing Legal Environment
Meghan Fawcett, Ritsema Law
Marc Lamber, Fennemore Craig, PC
Christopher Norton, Snow Carpio & Weekley
Pat Sallen, Ethics at Law PLLC
Moderator: Hon. Paula Eaton, Industrial Commission of Arizona
4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Breakout Groups
Applicants’ Bar: Laura Clymer, Clymer Legal PLLC
Defense Bar: Kirk Barberich, Lundmark Barberich LaMont & Slavin PC
Judicial: Hon. Paula Eaton, Industrial Commission of Arizona
Hon. LuAnn Haley, Industrial Commission of Arizona
For more information on hotel reservations and location, please visit: azbar.org/workerscomp
| 2024 Workers' Compensation Manual (22.9 MB) | 303 Pages | Available after Purchase |
| Petitions to Reopen Slides (2.2 MB) | 18 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Perry J. Evangelista, MD. Dr. Perry Evangelista is a board-certified orthopaedic sugeon, fellowship trained in adult reconstruction. He is an expert in hip and knee replacements as well as complex hip and knee revision surgery. His practice incorporates hip preservation with hip arthroscopy and he focuses on the application of robotics and advanced technology as it relates to hip and knee replacement surgery. Dr. Evangelista graduated Summa Cum Laude from Case Western Reserve University. He received his medical degree from the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. From there, he completed his internship and orthopaedic residency training at New York University Langone Orthopedic Hospital. His fellowship was completed at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been recognized as a TopDoc in the Phoenix Area in 2023 and 2024. Dr. Evangelista is currently in private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Evangelista Orthopedic Clinic.
R. Todd Lundmark has been a member of the State Bar of Arizona since 1981. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Arizona in 1978, and his J.D. in 1981 from Arizona State University College of Law. Certified by the Arizona Bar as a workers' compensation specialist since 1991, he is a co-editor and co-author of the Arizona Workers' Compensation Handbook (State Bar of Arizona, 1992).
Robert E. Wisniewski is a claimant's attorney in Phoenix Arizona. Mr. Wisniewski is a Certified Specialist, Workers' Compensation, Arizona Board of Legal Specialization and a Fellow, The College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers. He is a graduate of the University of Toledo, College of Law and holds a Masters in Public Administration, University of Oklahoma. Undergraduate, B.A. Political Science, Upsala College, New Jersey.
Since 1976, Mr. Wisniewski has devoted his practice to the representation of injured workers across Arizona. He has litigated over 13,000.00 Arizona industrial workers' compensation hearings and with his civil practice, has litigated in every county of Arizona.
He has a special interest in Arizona Workers' Compensation lien law, lecturing on this topic for the past several decades. He is the author of "Complete Guide to Arizona Workers' Compensation Lien Law and Practice" ©. Available on PDF at www.Azhmtonthejob.com, (Resources). He has also lectured and testified as an expert witness on a variety of aspects of workers' compensation claims, bad faith claims handling, damages and standard of care. He is listed in Best Lawyers of America, is a Super Lawyer, Arizona and Southwest Super Lawyer, and a member of The Workers' Injury Law Advocacy Group.
He is Panel Counsel for the NFL Players Association, (Arizona Cardinals), Panel Counsel for Professional Hockey Players Association (Arizona Coyotes/Tucson Roadrunners), and the Arizona Diamondbacks players.
He is a founding incorporator of Kids Chance of Arizona and presently 1s an Advisory Board Member of Kids Chance of Arizona.
His best award is his license plate "NBRlGPA" (Number 1 Grandpa) of 7 grandchildren.
Meghann Fawcett is an Associate Attorney with Ritsema Law, as an defense attorney. Ms. Fawcett has been practicing workers compensation law since 2018, as both an applicant’s attorney and defense attorney. She is licensed in Arizona and New Mexico, and is an active member of Young Lawyers Division, and serves on the Board of Directors for Kids Chance of Arizona.
Marc Lamber focuses his practice on plaintiffs’ catastrophic injury and wrongful death litigation. He formed the plaintiff personal injury practice at Fennemore and has built it into the strong and innovative practice it is today.
After several years as a defense attorney, Marc wanted the opportunity to work on a more personal level with clients and saw personal injury law as the best outlet. He has recovered tens of millions of dollars for thousands of accident victims and their families, resulting in hundreds of successful jury trials, arbitrations, mediations, and settlements.
Marc is frequently featured on national, regional, and local media for comment on legal issues and other current affairs, including AI and other technology in the law. Marc has been featured on the cover of AZ Business Magazine as one of The Top 100 Lawyers in Arizona and highlighted by Newsweek as one of the “20 Leaders Plaintiffs’ Trial Lawyers.”
Christopher S. Norton has devoted 100% of his practice to the area of work injuries and claim resolution, including Full and Final Settlements. He is a Workers’ Compensation Certified Specialist (State Bar of Arizona Board of Legal Specialization). He received his law degree from Brigham Young University and is licensed in both Texas and Arizona. He has been recognized by his peers as a Southwest Super Lawyer from 2021-2024 and was previously recognized several times as a Southwest Super Lawyers Rising Star.
Before representing injured workers, he was a founding partner of a workers’ compensation defense firm representing many of Arizona’s most significant employers. He served on the boards of industry associations and was active in legislative affairs affecting workers’ compensation. He is a frequent speaker at workers’ compensation industry events and seminars. He also served on the ICA’s Bench-Bar committee for many years.
Chris has spent his career seeking and refining legal technology applications to create automations and efficiencies in case management and document generation. He founded his prior firm on entirely cloud-based technology in 2011. He has been instrumental in driving technological advancement and integrations between legal technology vendors to meet law firm needs.
Patricia Sallen is a lawyer in private practice focusing on professional responsibility issues. She represents lawyers in discipline and admission matters, provides ethics advice to lawyers, serves as an expert witness on professional-responsibility issues, and consults on a myriad of other law-related topics. She regularly presents at CLE seminars and publishes articles about professional responsibility and writes the Eye on Ethics column for Arizona Attorney. She also has taught professional responsibility as an adjunct professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law for more than a decade. In addition to practicing in private law firms, she spent more than 15 years working for the State Bar of Arizona as both a bar counsel and ethics counsel and supervised programs such as the Fee Arbitration Program and Client Protection Fund. She served as expert consultant to the Arizona Supreme Court's 2014-15 comprehensive ethical rules review effort and to the Court's 2019-20 Task Force on the Delivery of Legal Services, which resulted in the groundbreaking rule changes allowing non-lawyer firm ownership and legal paraprofessionals. She currently serves on the State Bar's Ethics Advisory Group and the Supreme Court's Task Force on Ethics Rules Governing the State Attorney General, County Attorneys, and Other Public Lawyers.
Honorable Paula Eaton is an Administrative Law Judge with the Industrial Commission of Arizona where she has been employed for the last twenty nine years. Prior to joining the Administrative Law Judge Division, Ms. Eaton was employed as a staff attorney with the agency. As a staff attorney, Ms. Eaton appeared before the Governor's Regulatory Review Commission, represented the agency in numerous OSHA fatality cases and workers' compensation cases, and appeared before the Arizona Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court in agency matters. She has received training in both basic and advanced mediation. She became an Administrative Law Judge in 2003. Since 2018, she has also worked as an instructor at Grand Canyon University teaching a graduate course on the U.S. and Arizona Constitution. Ms. Eaton is a past co-chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of the State Bar of Arizona; is a past co-chair of the CLE Committee of the Workers' Compensation Section; and is a past member of the editorial board of the Arizona Attorney magazine. Ms. Eaton has served as an editor of the Arizona Appellate Handbook, Workers' Compensation Section published by the State Bar of Arizona. She is the author of "The Americans with Disabilities Act and Workers' Compensation Law", Tort and Insurance Law Journal (Winter 1993).
Laura Clymer is the lead attorney for Clymer Legal PLLC. Previously, she was an associate attorney for 10 years at Brian Clymer, Attorney at Law. Clymer Legal PLLC represents people in Arizona workers’ compensation and Social Security disability cases. Laura is a workers' compensation certified specialist, State Bar of Arizona. She also serves on the executive board of the Arizona Association of Lawyers for Injured Workers. She’s been recognized as Best Lawyers “Ones to Watch”, workers’ compensation - claimants, for five consecutive years (2021-2025).
In addition to practicing full-time, Laura is a part-time, adjunct professor of law practice at the University of Arizona, where she teaches a legal writing, analysis and research class to UA undergraduate law majors and MLS graduate students.
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.
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 serves as club past-president. 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.
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.
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.
Kirk Barberich, Esq. graduated from the University of Arizona law school in 1987. He is certified by the State Bar of Arizona as a workers' compensation specialist, a member of the workers' compensation CLE committee and has limited his practice to workers' compensation defense since July 1990. He is rated as AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubble and has been elected to The Best Lawyers in America since 2010. He is a member of Lundmark, Barberich, LaMont and Puig, PC.
Honorable LuAnn Haley has been an Administrative Law Judge with the Industrial Commission of Arizona since 1999. Judge Haley graduated from college and law school in Pennsylvania and received her Juris Doctorate from the Dickinson School of Law in 1981. She practiced law in Pennsylvania from 1981 through 1998 before moving to Arizona in 1998. She continues to be admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and also has been licensed in Arizona since 1999. While practicing in Pennsylvania, she handled workers’ compensation cases for employers, carriers and self-insured employers. Judge Haley has been a frequent lecturer for continuing legal education seminars in both Arizona and Pennsylvania and also serves on the CLE committee for the State Bar of Arizona’s Workers’ Compensation Section. Judge Haley is a Fellow of the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers and serves on the Executive Committee for the organization. In addition, she is a member of the National Association of Workers’ Compensation Judiciary and serves as is one of the editors for the NAWCJ’s monthly newsletter.
Jonathan Hauer, Administrative Law Judge, joined the Industrial Commission of Arizona in 2014 as an Administrative Law Judge. During his time in the workers' compensation community, Judge Hauer has been the Commission's Assistant Chief Counsel, a Vice Chief Administrative Law Judge, and counsel for injured workers. Before joining the Industrial Commission, Judge Hauer worked in the private sector, where he represented clients in employment-related litigation. Judge Hauer received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and obtained his law degree from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
Javier Puig has a background in child psychology and practiced in that field prior to attending law school in 2001. He is a 2004 graduate of UNLV Wm. S. Boyd School of Law with a visitorship at Arizona State University. After graduating from Law School Javier served as a prosecutor for the Maricopa County Attorney’s office in adult and juvenile court. He was then transferred to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Civil Division where he handled Civil Mental Health commitments and worked with the newly developed special healthcare district. He was then hired by SCF AZ (now Copper Point Mutual) as in-house counsel. Javier then represented applicants until mid-2017. Javier obtained his Specialization in Workers Compensation Law in May 2013. When he’s not diligently covering workers’ compensation matters with his current defense firm Lundmark, Barberich, LaMont & Puig as their managing partner, you can find him playing with his Goldendoodle or hovering over the table of food at any social gathering.
