Description: Public entities, like businesses, are faced with numerous policies, rules, laws, and public opinions regarding COVID-19.  These are sometimes conflicting.  This session will explore how collaboration between departments will help public entities navigate these various issues and the novel challenges presented by COVID-19 with a focus on workers' compensation and serious and willful claim handling, Cal/OSHA safety violations, benefit entitlement and interactive process considerations with a panel of experts in these areas.

Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1429827327368928781

Katharine McCall, an associate attorney at Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard, represents public and private sector entities in a broad range of employment matters including wage and hour actions, workplace audits and investigations, and discrimination and harassment claims. She provides advice and counsel to clients on various labor and employment issues, including compliance with California wage and hour laws and laws regulating employee leave, safety, termination, discrimination and harassment. Katharine has provided advice and counsel to numerous public and private sector clients on the evolving local, state, and federal laws and regulations arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes crafting employment policies and providing strategic guidance on compliance with COVID-19 related legal requirements.

Bill Davis is an attorney in Hanna Brophy's Santa Rosa office. Hanna Brophy’s legal practice is exclusively devoted to defense of employers and their insurance representatives in California workers’ compensation litigation. Bill was the 2019 California Workers Compensation Defense Attorney of the Year. He has been a practicing attorney for over 25 years. He started practice in State and Federal courts and has exclusively practiced in California workers’ compensation for 17 years. Bill is the attorney behind the published Lindh decision, which changed the face of apportionment in California. He frequently publishes articles and lectures the workers’ compensation state and national communities on a variety of cutting edge topics including COVID-19.

Natalie Dempsey is the Workers’ Compensation Claims Manager for the City of Sacramento. The City of Sacramento self-administers all the claims for the City employees injured on the job to provide a high level of service and enhances communication throughout departments. In her prior role, Natalie worked in the private sector as a Claims Director for one of the top national insurance companies with seven years managing a claims department and nearly 15 years’ experience in the industry. With the adoption of SB1159, Natalie has been integral in developing policies and procedures surrounding COVID-19 claims, mandated reporting and works closely with other departments to ensure state compliance.

Jeannette Herrera is a senior associate attorney at Hanna Brophy’s Sacramento office and handles all aspects of workers’ compensation claims and related matters. In addition to representing both public and private entities, her practice includes representation for claims involving serious and willful misconduct, Labor Code 132(a) discrimination and Cal/OSHA-defense. Jeannette has been selected as a Rising Star in Northern California by Super Lawyers from 2018 – 2021. She is the attorney behind the 2015 en banc Navarro decision which changed the landscape for requesting medical-legal evaluators on subsequent injuries and is often cited by judges, attorneys, and the DIR Medical Unit. To date, Jeannette has presented in around three dozen COVID-19 Webinars on SB 1159, AB 685 and Cal/OSHA’s emergency temporary standard.