View from the Incoming Chair

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: MARIA A. SAGER, ESQ.

View from the Incoming Chair

MARIA A. SAGER, ESQ.

Oakland, California

Maria Antonieta Sager, a partner with Boxer & Gerson, is also a Workers' Compensation Certified Specialist. In addition to being the current Chair of the Executive Committee of this section, she works with Centro Legal de la Raza's Youth Law Academy Advisory Committee and is a pro tern judge at the Oakland Workers' Compensation Board.

I am greatly honored by the opportunity to begin my 2018-2019 term as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Workers' Compensation Section of the California Lawyers Association (CLA).

I am thrilled about getting to serve as Chair at a time when the CLA has just come into being, having separated from the State Bar of California. The CLA is made up of 16 sections and the California Young Lawyers Association. With about 100,000 members, the CLA is the second largest professional association of lawyers in the nation, smaller only than the American Bar Association. Among many benefits, the CLA will provide cutting-edge education and publications, as well as networking opportunities, for its members.

The Executive Committee of the Workers' Compensation section of the CLA represents one of the 16 sections and comprises judges as well as applicant and defense attorneys, ensuring a balanced perspective on all issues addressed. New committee members are encouraged to participate in one or two of the following subcommittees:

• Education
• Practice and Ethics
• Legislation
• Awards and Recognition
• Publications
• Membership
• Technology/Website/Social Media
• Community Outreach
• Unpublished Decisions

The goal of each subcommittee is to help our 3200-plus workers' compensation members be the best they can be professionally, through, for example, educational courses and articles found in the Workers' Compensation Quarterly. Committee members meet five times during the year, alternating between northern and southern California. Meetings generally take place in January, March, July, September, and November.

At each meeting, subcommittee chairs report back to the entire Executive Committee on, among other agenda items, the accomplishments, goals, and challenges each faces. I have been impressed, over the last five years, as I have heard subcommittee chairs report back with care and thoroughness.

A three-year...