California Workers' Compensation Handbook

Stanford D. Herlick, a former Deputy Attorney General of the State of California, was actively involved in workers' compensation law since 1955 when he was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the California Industrial Accident Commission (now called the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board). His experience in the field included more than 16 years as an instructor in workers' compensation law at the University of California, Los Angeles, and nearly 20 years as a consultant specializing in workers' compensation. Mr. Herlick received his J.D. from the University of Southern California and an M.A. from the Talbot Theological Seminary.

Barry D. Bloom, of The bdb Group, has extensive executive business experience with the healthcare, retail, manufacturing, staffing, trucking, telecommunications, hospitality and hightech industries, coupled with technical expertise in the fields of workers' compensation, absence management and disability, group health benefits and liability and Employers Bill of Rights (EBOR). Mr. Bloom has acted as the Founder and Senior Executive for national claims management firms specializing in workers' compensation, liability, and absence management claims administration, integrated with clinical managed care capabilities. He has also served as the Principal consultant, National Practice Leader and project leader for private Fortune 500 companies, as well as public entities and smaller employers, engaged in risk management and human capital program reviews and engagements. Mr. Bloom belongs to various professional organizations, including the California Administrative Services Organization (CASO), Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI), and Sales & Marketing Executives of San Francisco (SMESF). He is a past member of the California Governor's Advisory Committee on Workers' Compensation. He has also been an instructor and guest speaker for RIMS, Insurance Educational Association, and Insurance Claims Association, and has had various articles and papers published. He is a Who's Who in Managed Care Honoree (1995), and an Oxford's Who's Who Honoree (1992).

Richard (Jake) M. Jacobsmeyer is a Senior Associate at the law firm of Michael Sullivan & Associates, a statewide workers’ compensation defense firm with 10 offices in California. A certified specialist in workers’ compensation since 1981, he has experience as both a representative of the injured workers for 18 years and now representing employers and insurance carriers before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board for over 30 years. As an applicant’s attorney, Jake served terms on the Board of Governors of the California Applicant Attorneys Association (CAAA) including stints as Education Chair and Amicus Committee Co-Chair. During his time as an applicant’s attorney he also worked his way up the ladder in the Northern California Chapter of CAAA, ultimately serving as President of that Chapter in 1993–1994. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the Diablo Valley Industrial Claims Association, the San Francisco Industrial Claims Association and as Speaker’s Chair for the Industrial Claims Association. He serves as amicus counsel for the California Workers’ Compensation Institute and is a frequent panelist for CWCI programs including their annual Legal Update Seminar as well as its periodic Statutory and Regulatory training programs. He is a frequent panelist on Workers’ Compensation issues for many organizations including California Self-Insurance Association, Coalition on California Workers’ Compensation, California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, California Society for Industrial Medicine and Surgery and multiple Industrial Claims Associations. In June of 2010, he was selected as one of the “Most Influential People in Workers Comp for 2010” by Workers Comp Executive Magazine. He was also selected as WorkCompCentral Comp Laude 2018 National Workers’ Compensation Defense attorney of the year.

A partner at Boxer & Gerson LLP in Oakland, Julius has practiced workers’ compensation and social security disability law since 1979. He has represented thousands of individuals who have sustained life-changing injuries or illnesses while on the job. He is the founder, writer, and editor of an award-winning blog on workers’ compensation and wider more far ranging and always engaging political issues, http://www.workerscompzone.com/. The blog is a four-time winner or co-winner of the top workers’ comp blog in the U.S. by LexisNexis. A Board member of the California State Bar Executive Committee in Workers’ Compensation from 2007 to 2010, Julius has long been involved in the larger workers’ compensation community. He has sat as a Judge Pro Tem at the WCAB since 2005, has been consultant to LexisNexis on workers’ compensation publications since 2008, has been an instructor on Social Security disability issues for Lohrman Seminars, and has lectured widely to many union groups such as the Teamsters, Machinists, UFCW, IBEW, SEIU, AFSCME, Northern California Carpenters, Painters and others. He has also lectured at the request of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, the Industrial Claims Association, State Compensation Insurance Fund, the California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery, the Diablo Valley Claims Association, the California Coalition on Workers' Compensation and others. In addition, Julius has acted as a training consultant for the Employment Law Center Workers’ Compensation Clinic, served as an advisor to Worksafe on workers’ compensation and safety issues, and served on several occasions on an advisory committee to RAND at the request of the California Commission on Health, Safety, and Workers’ Compensation. He also served on a committee to advise the California Division on Workers' Compensation on developing training modules for QMEs. A resident of San Mateo County, he also serves as a consultant to LexisNexis as an editor of the Herlick Handbook and as a consultant to the California WCAB Noteworthy Panel Decisions Reporter.