William C. Brown Receives 2017 Pomeranz-O’Brien Award
Attorney William “Bill” C. Brown received the Pomeranz-O’Brien Award from the Connecticut Bar Association’s (CBA) Workers’ Compensation Section for his contribution and exemplary service to the workers’ compensation system and community.
“Bill is the epitome of high ethical standards and should have received this award years ago. If there was a Workers’ Compensation Hall of Fame, Bill would be a First Ballot Hall of Famer,” expressed Attorney Brian L. Smith, who nominated Attorney Brown for the award.
Attorney Brown was a founding member of the Workers’ Compensation Section and served on its executive committee. He worked tirelessly on the development and implementation of the Workers’ Compensation Specialist Certification program and served as chair of the program’s standing committee. Throughout his career, he authored articles for the section’s newsletter, Compensation Quarterly, and lectured at CBA and Connecticut Trial Lawyer’s Association seminars. Attorney Brown retired from his firm, McGann Bartlett & Brown LLC, in 2016 and is now mediating workers’ compensation claims with the Law Office of Angelo Paul Sevarino.
CBA Workers’ Compensation Section Chair Francis X. Drapeau added, “Bill Brown showed us the way and set the standard for all other sections.”
The Pomeranz-O’Brien award is presented to a practitioner who has, over the course of a career, exhibited excellence in the practice of workers’ compensation law, and/or made outstanding and extraordinary contributions to the practice. It is named for Edward Pomeranz, an early pioneer in the practice of workers’ compensation law and a founder of Pomeranz Drayton & Stabnick, and Ed O’Brien, Sr., an accomplished practitioner who also served the state as workers’ compensation commissioner. Past recipients of this award include Angelo Paul Sevarino, James L. Pomeranz, Robert F. Carter, Donald C. Cousins, and Douglas L. Drayton.
The Workers’ Compensation Section aims to organize the members of the CBA who are workers’ compensation practitioners and to educate all members of the bar from all sides at all levels of expertise as to workers’ compensation law. Furthermore, the section attempts to provide services to organizations other than the CBA when those organizations are involved in the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation system. The section consists of members who represent injured workers, employers and insurers as well as the State of Connecticut and the Second Injury Fund.
