Norton & Brozina, P.C. is pleased to announce that Melinda K. Poppe is joining the firm as of August 1, 2018.Ms. Poppe is retiring from her current position as Deputy Director for the Industrial Commission of Arizona.Ms. Poppe will return to her workers’ compensation defense roots and will also focus on full and final settlements for the firm’s clients.Her broad and extensive experience and leadership in the Arizona workers’ compensation industry will be a tremendous asset to the firm and our clients.
Prior to joining the Director’s Office, she served as the Chief Administrative Law Judge and also as the Claims Manager for the Industrial Commission.Ms. Poppe has extensive workers’ compensation legal experience.She represented policyholders in workers’ compensation and subrogation matters for CopperPoint Mutual Insurance Company, formally SCF Arizona, from 2003-2012 and she also served as Assistant Chief Counsel.Prior to joining CopperPoint Mutual, she was a partner in the law firm of Long, Lundmark & Poppe from 1991-2002, where she represented policyholders, insurance carriers and self-insured employers in workers’ compensation matters.
She is a Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law and is a member of the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers. Ms. Poppe is a past co-chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the State Bar of Arizona and has served as both chair and co-chair for workers’ compensation seminars at the State Bar Convention and the workers’ compensation fall seminars.She has also served as a member of the Board of Legal Specialization and is a co-author of the Arizona Workers’ Compensation Handbook (State Bar of Arizona, 1992).Ms. Poppe received her B.A. in Nursing from the University of Arizona in 1981 and her J.D. from Arizona State University in 1987.She speaks frequently on workers’ compensation topics.
