Workers' Compensation Lawyers

Richard K. Zepfel is a partner at Payne & Fears in Irvine whose practice focuses on business transactions and employment law counseling. He handles corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, private equity deals, and major commercial contracts. He also handles real estate matters, including the acquisition and leasing of commercial and industrial property. On the employment side, he prepares and negotiates executive employment agreements, executive compensation and equity incentive plans, separation and severance agreements, and employee handbooks. Clients, many of them entering complex transactions for the first time, rely on him to understand their objectives and design efficient strategies to reach them. Before joining Payne & Fears, he was managing partner of the Orange County office of Graham & James LLP and earlier an associate at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. He earned his J.D. from the USC Law Center and his B.A. in Political Science from UCLA.

Gregg Amber is a partner in the Corporate group at Rutan & Tucker in Irvine. His finance and transactional practice ranges from commercial loans to IPOs, other securities offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. His work includes leveraged buyouts and SPAC transactions, venture capital and private equity investments, secured transactions, public and private securities offerings, and SEC reporting and disclosure documents. He also advises on equity compensation plans and joint ventures. He has represented buyers and sellers in acquisitions, issuers and investors in venture and private equity deals, and lenders and borrowers. In 1999 and 2000, he was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of ZLand.com, which gave him a client's perspective. He later served on the board of SSP Solutions, a Nasdaq-listed company, until its 2004 acquisition. He earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his B.A. from Principia College.

Dennis A. Dascanio leads a practice devoted to injured workers. According to his firm, he opened his first office in Santa Ana in 1987, and the practice now focuses on workers' compensation and Social Security disability claims, along with related employment and personal injury matters. He learned workers' compensation law under mentor Eugene Levington and built the firm largely through client referrals, and it grew to several offices. Mr. Dascanio has appeared before Workers' Compensation Appeals Board venues throughout Southern California and at several boards in Northern California. He is also admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. He belongs to the Orange County Bar Association, the Western San Bernardino Bar Association, and the California Applicants' Attorneys Association. Bilingual in English and Spanish, he works on a contingency-fee basis and gives prospective clients a thorough review of their claims.

Cyrus Mor is an employment lawyer whose Newport Beach-based firm represents workers throughout Southern California, with additional offices in Long Beach and San Diego. According to his firm biography, he has more than a decade of experience representing employees. His practice centers on employees who have been terminated, and he handles wrongful termination, retaliation, discrimination, and harassment claims, along with wage-and-hour disputes and unemployment benefit matters. He has represented workers against employers ranging from large global corporations to small family-owned businesses. His cases include retaliation after workplace complaints or whistleblowing, discrimination based on protected characteristics such as race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, and religion, and claims arising from hostile work environments. Mr. Mor earned a B.A. in Political Science from Syracuse University in 2005 and a J.D. from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego in 2011.

Adam J. Krolikowski is the founder of The Krolikowski Law Firm, a Santa Ana trial practice that represents injured Californians. He grew up in Huntington Beach and earned a B.A. in Criminology, Law & Society from UC Irvine's School of Social Ecology and a J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. He was admitted to the California bar in 1999. His practice covers personal injury and wrongful death, premises liability, motor vehicle, motorcycle, truck, pedestrian, and bicycle accidents, and medical device litigation. He also handles workers' compensation, wrongful termination, and appellate matters. His firm biography describes work before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the California Court of Appeal, and Superior Courts in many counties. He emphasizes his readiness to take cases to trial when insurers will not settle fairly.