Speakers

SPEAKERS

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

DALE BRODSKY, Esq., Councilmember of the California Fair Employment and Housing Council

Councilmember Dale Brodsky is a partner at Beeson Tayer& Bodine, where she has served as an attorney since 2002.  She was associate editor for the California Public Employee Relations Program at University of California, Berkeley from 2000 to 2002, and an adjunct law professor at the University of San Francisco from 1997 to 2001.  Ms. Brodsky was an associate at Saperstein Seligman and Mayeda from 1989 to 1991 and in private practice from 1984 to 1989 and 1997 to 2002.  She held multiple positions at the Department of Fair Employment and Housing from 1978 to 1983, including legal counsel.  Ms. Brodsky was deputy public defender for the City and County of San Francisco in 1978. She is a member of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, California Employment Lawyers Association, National Lawyers Guild and American Civil Liberties Union.  Ms. Brodsky earned her Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law.  Appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., Ms. Brodsky’s term expires January 1, 2017.

PRESENTERS

BERNADETTE M. O’BRIEN, Esq., SPHR

Bernadette M. O’Brien is the managing attorney of Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, LLP’s employment law department and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). She provides advice and counsel to employers, human resource administrators, risk managers and claims adjusters on numerous workplace topics including policy development and implementation; employee discipline/workplace investigations; the prevention of workplace claims for discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and/or wrongful termination; wage and hour compliance; the crossover issues related to workers’ compensation and the Family and Medical Leave Act/Americans with Disabilities Act. Ms. O’Brien also conducts Human Resource Training and Development sessions throughout California. Ms. O’Brien is author of the popular LexisNexis publication Labor and Employment in California: A Guide to Employment Laws, Regulations and Practices and co-author of California Unemployment Insurance and Disability Compensation Programs, which is a helpful treatise on California unemployment insurance and disability laws. Ms. O’Brien is a frequent contributor to, and reporter for, the LexisNexis employment law newsletter Bender’s California Labor & Employment Bulletin and she is editor of FS&K employment related websites www.employmentlawweekly.com, and www.worklawreport.com, which cover the latest court cases and legislation related to employment law. She has been a speaker on a variety of employment law topics for numerous organizations including CalPelra, PIHRA, CWC, Ag-Safe, EAC, Northern California Workers’ Comp Forum, Intercare, National Interstate Insurance, and the Employer’s Fraud Task Force.

DONA LEE SKEREN, Esq.

Dona Lee Skeren is the assistant managing attorney of Floyd, Skeren & Kelly’s employment law department. She provides advice and counsel to employers on a variety of employment related matters ranging from discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation to general human resources matters such as employee handbook development and employer notice obligations under federal and state law. Ms. Skeren’s focus is on assisting employers with understanding and converging the return-to-work cross-over issues related to federal and state leave laws, more specifically, the nuances associated with California workers’ compensation laws and the FEHA/ADA/ADAAA disability discrimination laws. She also conducts employment law related seminars and training sessions throughout California and is co-editor of www.fskemploymentlaw.com, www.employmentlawweekly.com and www.employmentlawacademy.com . After finishing her undergraduate education at California State University, Fullerton, Ms. Skeren obtained her Juris Doctorate degree at Golden Gate University School of Law, where she was a law review staff member, received several academic awards and spent a summer term as a law clerk for an Administrative Law Judge at the Fair Employment and Housing Commission, in San Francisco, California. In 1995 Ms. Skeren began her career with the Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, representing employers, insurance entities, and third party administrators in workers’ compensation matters, including standard defense of claims, 132a discrimination allegations, serious and willful allegations and all other employment related issues. Additionally she assisted in the editing and publication of Judge David W. O’Brien’s California Workers’ Compensation Claims and Benefits handbook and his unemployment insurance treatise.

ED FENSHOLT, Esq.

Ed Fensholt is the Senior Vice President, Director of Compliance Services with The Lockton Companies. Ed has 28 years of experience as an attorney, 22 years concentrating in the area of ERISA and other aspects of employee benefits law. He has extensive experience regarding compliance issues under the Tax Code and ERISA with respect to retirement, health, and other fringe benefit plans, qualified and nonqualified plan design, implementation and administration, employee benefits issues in mergers and acquisitions, multiple employer welfare arrangements, and a variety of other employee benefits-related matters. Prior to joining Lockton in 2005, Ed established and led the ERISA Compliance practice at Palmer & Cay and was a managing principal with DeFrain Mayer, an employee benefits consulting firm in Overland Park, Kansas. From 1990 to 1998, Ed practiced law with the employee benefits group of Spencer Fane Britt & Browne, a large Kansas City law firm. Ed became a partner in the firm in 1996..

DAVID L. JIMENEZ, Esq.

David L. Jimenez is currently a partner with Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, at our firm’s Westlake Village office location. Mr. Jimenez earned his Undergraduate Degree from California State University, Northridge, before attending law school and earning his Juris Doctorate Degree from Loyola Law School.
Prior to joining the Law Offices of Floyd, Skeren & Kelly in 2002, Mr. Jimenez obtained several years of litigation experience in the field of workers’ compensation. Mr. Jimenez represents third party administrators, insurance companies, self-insured entities and employers as well as uninsured employers in all standard workers’ compensation issues including §132(a) discrimination claims and serious and willful misconduct allegations. Mr. Jimenez is also a member of several professional associations including the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the American Bar Association.

TIMOTHY D. MORGAN, Esq.

Timothy Morgan is an associate in the firm’s Westlake Village office. After obtaining an undergraduate degree in Sports Medicine from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, he attended the Ventura College of Law where he received the Witkin Award of Academic Excellence for his coursework in Constitutional Criminal Procedure. After clerking for then Presiding Judge in Ventura County, the Honorable Vincent J. O’Neill, Mr. Morgan began his career as a civil litigator defending doctors, hospitals and other medical professionals as a medical malpractice defense lawyer. Mr. Morgan recently joined the firm bringing his civil litigation experience and extensive background in the field of medicine to form a practice that will be dedicated to the defense of workers’ compensation matters of all types. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Leslie, herself a lifelong resident of Westlake Village, and his children, Makena and Mason.

ERIC E. OSTLING, Esq.

Eric E. Ostling is the Managing Attorney of the Law Offices of Floyd, Skeren & Kelly’s Sacramento office location. Mr. Ostling earned his Undergraduate Degree from the University of California, Davis, before attending the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctorate Degree. Not being satisfied with a Juris Doctorate Degree, Mr. Ostling continued and obtained his Master of Law and Taxation, Degree also from the University of the Pacific.
Prior to joining the Law Offices of Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, LLP in 2007, Mr. Ostling spent twenty years litigating both civil and workers’ compensation issues before various Federal District Courts, California Superior Courts as well as the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB). As a result of this litigation experience, Mr. Ostling brings with him a breadth of knowledge on subrogation and civil litigation matters to supplement his ability to represent the Law Offices of Floyd, Skeren & Kelly’s clients before the WCAB.
Currently, Mr. Ostling represents employers, insurance entities, self-insured entities and third party administrators before the WCAB on standard workers’ compensation defense, §132(a) discrimination claims and serious and willful misconduct allegations. Mr. Ostling also represents clients in State Court civil proceedings including subrogation and other civil litigation. Mr. Ostling also has a published article in the Pacific Law Journal.

LINDSAY A. WAGENMAN, Esq.

Lindsay Wagenman is currently the Managing Attorney of our Bay Area operations located in Oakland, California. Prior to joining Floyd, Skeren and Kelly in 2011, she worked at several employment law firms handling wage and hour class actions, wrongful termination, general civil litigation and workers’ compensation. Ms. Wagenman received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from San Diego State University, where she majored in Journalism with a minor in Public Administration. Ms. Wagenman graduated from the San Francisco Law School in May 2008 and was admitted to the California Bar in December 2008. During one of her summers in law school, she served as a judicial law clerk to Honorable Luis A. Gonzalez of the New York County Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.

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