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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Law Firm Grows into New Westlake Village Office

The rise in workers’ compensation claims has prompted more employers to mount a vigorous defense against claims in recent years. And that’s been good news for the lawyers and partners at Floyd, Skeren & Kelly. The law firm specializing in workers’ compensation defense work is expanding and moving its headquarters into a new 20,000-square foot building in Westlake Village. “It will give us more space to add and hire,” said Partner Tom Skeren. “We’re moving to continue our growth.” The firm is consolidating two offices — its main office in Thousand Oaks and one in Culver City — and moving into what overall will be more space, Skeren said. The firm has grown to 75 attorneys and 200 employees across 12 offices statewide, and one in Nevada. But Skeren said there is still more room for expansion. Floyd, Skeren specializes in workers’ compensation defense work representing large, national companies and insurers who face workers’ compensation claims across California. Those claims have been rising in recent years, as they tend to in a recession, Skeren said. “I’m not saying the claims are not legitimate” Skeren said. “They could be. But when there is a downturn in the economy and employers are forced to reduce their workforce, someone may try for secondary gain to make a minor problem into a major one.” In 2009-10, there was a 9.1 percent increase in number of indemnity claims per million dollars of payroll in California, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau. The one-year blip in more than 10 years led many to conclude that the long recession is perhaps responsible for the change in the rate at which indemnity claims occur. Indemnity claims are time off from a job due to an injury or disability leave. The theory is that people who are fearful about losing their job may file a claim, hoping they can go on disability leave instead of unemployment, said Jack Hannan, director of marketing and communications for the bureau. But the relationship between a recession and the rise in claims is not necessarily causal, Hannan noted. Indeed, the bureau believes the more likely reason for the rise in the rate of indemnity claims per million dollars in payroll has been the dramatic decrease in payroll during the recession. Regardless, Floyd, Skeren’s business has been growing in recent years. California is frequently the state with the most workers’ compensation claims and national employers have been taking a more aggressive tack defending against what may be illegitimate claims, or cases where a third party is actually responsible for the claim, Skeren said. “Some of the reforms that were instituted (under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger) have been tested in the courts and some of them have not fared as well as the writers had hoped,” Skeren said. “As a result, there’s been more employers looking to hire defense counsel to defend cases.” The firm also has been marketing heavily in recent years, which has raised the firm’s client base, Skeren added. “Instead of 10 cases from 10 clients, we have one case from 100 clients…We’ve broadened our client base.” Clients include corporations such as Costco, Verizon, Nestlé USA, and Nordstrom and insurance companies such as Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and Liberty Mutual Insurance, and third-party claims administrators such as Gallagher Basset Services Inc. The law firm’s new headquarters, located at 31229 Cedar Valley Drive, was a perfect fit for a single tenant, said broker Tony Principe, president of Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services, representing the owner, Cedar Valley Partners of Woodland Hills. Principe said the building has been empty for about a year. Smaller tenants wanted to lease space in the building, which is across from the Four Seasons Hotel and Oaks Christian School. But the owner held out, preferring to find a single tenant who could occupy the entire space. “It was a natural fit for them,” Principe said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Floyd, Skeren said it plans to eventually buy the building.

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