Upon graduating from law school in Washington, DC, I never envisioned that 30 years later, I would be practicing workers’ compensation defense law. Before attending Washington College of Law at American University, I had been a legislative aide to a high-profile congressman who would later be appointed to Secretary of Defense in the Clinton Administration. While in law school, I had clerked on the US Tax Court, and with Law Review on my résumé, I had a pretty inflated opinion of what I had to offer. I saw myself joining a chic Beverly Hills firm, wearing $1000 suits and driving a Porsche Carrera. But that never happened. I landed at a small corporate firm in Century City, wearing $200 suits and driving a Volkswagen. Well, at least it was a convertible.
A mutual friend introduced me to Kegel, Tobin & Truce in 1988 and the “wonderful world of comp.” To my great surprise, I found that I really liked it. My civil cases had been akin to reading “War and Peace,” but the claims in workers’ compensation were novelettes—and they were fun. I was a part sleuth and part lawyer. A few years later, I became a shareholder, then manager of our Los Angeles office and in January 2018, President of the firm.
