Employer Defense Group, LLP

Focus and practice areas

Employer Defense Group, LLP works on the defense side of workers' compensation matters in California. The firm also lists general liability as a practice area. Its workers' compensation work covers claims management, settlement efforts and litigation for cases that proceed past settlement.

The firm is based in Anaheim and represents employers across California. San Diego and Sacramento mark the south and north of its stated coverage. The practice page names insurance carriers and third party administrators as clients as well.

As a reviewer, I read that client list as a clear signal of who the firm works for. These are the parties who pay and administer benefits. The firm handles the employer and insurer side of a claim.

Who the firm represents

The three client types the site names occupy different points of the same claim. An employer carries the underlying legal duty to cover a work injury. An insurance carrier underwrites that risk and pays out on covered claims. A third party administrator manages claims day to day, often for an employer that insures itself.

Representing all three means the firm works for the side that funds and runs the benefit system. That client base shapes the firm's work. The firm builds its work around defending and resolving claims brought against those clients.

Insurance carriers and administrators also bring repeat, high volume relationships. A firm on that side handles many claims at once for the same client. In my opinion the named client mix helps explain the size of the partner group.

The range of matters the firm names

The firm sets out a broad list of the injuries it handles. Its own list includes credibility disputes, carpal tunnel and back strain claims, amputations, death claims and cases alleged as permanent total or catastrophic. That range covers both routine soft tissue claims and the most serious injuries a workplace can produce.

The lighter end and the heavier end call for different defense work. A back strain claim often turns on medical causation and the degree of disability. Carpal tunnel and similar repetitive claims raise the question of whether the job caused the condition. A catastrophic or permanent total claim carries far higher exposure, since permanent total disability can mean lifetime payments. Death claims bring their own dependency and benefit questions.

On the procedural side, the firm lists claim and benefit denials, claim termination, workers' compensation subrogation, settlements, determination opinions and emergency rule hearings. These are the specific stages where a claim is challenged or brought to a close. Subrogation adds a recovery angle, where the employer or insurer seeks to recover benefits paid when another party caused the injury.

How workers' compensation defense matters proceed

Workers' compensation in California runs through the state's Division of Workers' Compensation and its appeals board. Defense work tends to follow the claim's own timeline. A claim opens, the carrier accepts or denies it, and contested benefits go before a workers' compensation judge.

Handling and settling a claim

Claims management, the firm's first listed task, covers the early handling of a claim. That usually means investigating how the injury happened, coordinating medical treatment and deciding what the claim is worth. Settlement follows for many claims. In California such cases generally resolve by a stipulated award or a compromise and release, both approved by a judge.

When a case is litigated

Litigation is the path when a claim cannot be settled. Medical-legal reports often decide these disputes, and a workers' compensation judge weighs the evidence at hearing. The denied claims and appeals thread runs through this stage. When a carrier or administrator denies a benefit, the worker can challenge that denial, and the matter moves toward a hearing. The firm describes handling that stage for employers and insurers on its practice page.

How the team is built

The attorneys page groups the lawyers into partners, California attorneys, Nevada attorneys and a general liability team. The site names W. Holmes Lilley III, Thu Do, Diana Tsudik, David Fenn, Elsen Cheng, Karly Tambara, Anthony Culpepper Jr and Nathan Ho as partners. Andre Labonte appears as a Nevada partner.

Three lawyers hold the title of senior counsel: Heather Bond, Aaron Salo and David Perlmutter. The split into California and Nevada groupings and the separate general liability team point to a firm organized by both geography and practice line. The general liability lawyers form a separate group from the workers' compensation team, which matches the two practice areas the firm names.

What the record shows

The firm's pages describe a focused defense practice. Workers' compensation and general liability are the core, with employers, carriers and administrators as the named clients. A roster of partners and senior counsel covers work in two states. The Nevada partner and Nevada attorney sections show the firm handles matters in Nevada as well as California.

The site does not list a founding year, so the firm's age is left open. The site documents a consistent picture: a defense practice for the paying and administering side of workers' compensation, backed by a named group of attorneys. Employers, carriers and administrators are the clients it names, and its attorneys practice across California and Nevada.

Additional senior counsel

The attorney roster identifies a much wider senior counsel group than the three lawyers discussed above. Jose Navarro, Jeremiah Snowden, Olga Simanovsky, Beth Ruggiero, Jeff Slomann, Austin Roberts, Matthew Plust and Jasmine Keough each carry the senior counsel title. The same title appears for Shruti Baweja, Al Romano, Ashley Divinity and J. Gabriel Amezcua.

Brian C. Fenn, Candice Green, Jennifer Aloy and Grace Warburton also appear as senior counsel. These additional names show that the senior level extends across a sizable part of the published attorney list. For this reviewer, the individual titles provide a clearer measure of the firm's staffing depth than the partner list alone.

Natalya Sheddan has the more specific title of Senior Counsel General Liability. She is the only attorney in the supplied record whose title directly identifies that practice area. That designation connects a named lawyer to the firm's general liability work and gives readers a specific point of reference within the broader roster.

The associate attorney group

The firm identifies five lawyers as associate attorneys: Vivian Shamaoun, Roger Uy, Arshpreet Kahlon, Teresa Nguyen and Melika Taheri. Their inclusion establishes an associate level beneath the firm's partner and senior counsel ranks. The roster therefore reflects several levels of attorney seniority rather than a team composed solely of senior lawyers.

The published titles also make the internal structure easier to read. Partners form one level, while senior counsel account for a broad middle tier. The five associate attorneys make up another defined group. This reviewer sees value in that title information because it shows how the named attorney body is distributed across levels of responsibility.

Office and contact details

The firm's published package address is 2390 E Orangewood Ave, #520, Anaheim, California 92806. The suite designation matters for correspondence and distinguishes the complete mailing address from the shorter street address in the directory record. The listed office telephone number is (714) 592-1647.

The East Orangewood Avenue address gives the firm a specific Anaheim contact point for its California work. The record provides one office number alongside that address, which keeps the directory entry tied to a physical location and a direct telephone contact.