In the spring of 2018, I penned a piece regarding the Forum. I remember attending that year. There was an opportunity to sit at a hallway table with various judges and lawyers. It seems different in retrospect. That was pre-COVID, pre-OJCC Consolidation, and for whatever reason it is etched on my memory. In 2018 Forum Recap and Professionalism (April 2018); 2015 Frierson-Colling Professionalism Award (2015), I had the chance to discuss professionalism and The Florida Bar Workers' Compensation Section's efforts to recognize it in their members.
Notably, the Section has had two professionalism awards in my memory. The first was named for Bud Adams. I have striven with little to no success in documenting and memorializing all of the folks recognized with that. Over the years, a great many people have listened patiently to my lamentations of our disappearing history, and several have tried to help me document the Bud Adams honorees. But, I am convinced we still lack some names.
I have done a bit better with the more recent award, which was inaugurated in 2008. It was initially named for a gentleman from Ft. Myers who was a legend in Florida workers' compensation before my time. He is mentioned often by the aging among us. Al Frierson was a defense attorney, a lobbyist, an activist, and a force to be reckoned with. I do not recall when I first met him, but I have fond recollections of various advice he offered me over the years.
The Section amended the award, and re-named it, in 2009. See 2018 Forum Recap and Professionalism. Since then, it has been the Frierson-Colling Award. That brought some balance to the force, perhaps. Stewart Colling was a well-known claimant's attorney in Orlando. He too was involved in the legislative process, various lobbying efforts, the Section, and professionalism. The cojoining of those two names rendered a clearly balanced and aspirational label that is fitting of such an effort and recognition.
2008 Albert Frierson (Ft. Myers, FL)
2009 Stewart Colling (Orlando, FL)
2010 Richard Sicking (Miami, FL)
2011 Jacob Schickel (Jacksonville, FL)
2012 Herbert Langston (Orlando, FL)
2013 Ramon Malca (Miami, FL)
2014 Richard Thompson (Sarasota, FL)
2015 Richard Chait (Miami, FL)
2016 Thomas Conroy (Hollywood, FL/Las Vegas)
2017 Dawn Traverso (Miami, FL)
2018 Hon. Neal Pitts (Orlando, FL)
2019- Christopher Smith (Tampa, FL)
2020- Paul Anderson (Tallahassee, FL)
2021- Glen Wieland(Orlando, FL)
2022- Honorable Robert Dietz (posthumously)(Orlando, FL)
2023- Mark Touby (Miami, FL) my memory fails me here, and the World Wide Web did also (amendment coming)
The Section maintains a list of the honorees on its website.
What do we know of the Bud Adams Award? Not so much. It is named in honor of one of the founders of the Kelley Kronenberg firm. He was named a Legend in the Florida Workers' Compensation Hall of Fame in 2012. But to most of us, he is merely a name in the past.
In 2019, I set out to document the recipients of that honor. I did not do so well. We know that Ramon Malca was presented with the award. Gerald Rosenthal was also. George Kagan received the recognition "a few years" before 1994. At some point, Stephen Rosen was presented with the award (in 1991 perhaps). J. David Parrish was presented the award, seemingly also in 1991 (though that seems unlikely, two in one year). Stephen Rissman was presented the award in 1985. I am confidant that James McConnaughhay likely did, but he is not the type to list such things on his profile. The Workers' Compensation Institute described the award: it "was created “to recognize those who had performed outstanding and selfless service in advancing the philosophy and practice of the workers’ compensation system.” WCI Newsletter (May 2012). In 2024, I am going to figure out who won that award. I am not sure how I will, but you have to have goals.
I strive not to repeat (reprint) information on this blog. The WorldWide Web is so ubiquitous in our modern age (I shudder to think of how antiquated and naive we will all appear to our successors in decades to come). However, I re-post here from various sources. I do so because I struggled to find information on these three namesakes. At least I can assure that something remains and is accessible for a time. Who knows, this blog may be buried one day amongst the other detritus of this information age, but perhaps the following will survive.
The award was named for W.L. "Bud" Adams, one of the founders of Kelley Kronenberg (Miami, 1980), which at that time was Adams, Kelley & Kronenberg. In 2012, Ramon Malca provided the following brief biography of Mr. Adams:
"Bud Adams was a universally respected workers' compensation defense attorney who practiced in South Florida until he died at the age of 59 in 1984. He was a highly skilled attorney with tremendous personal integrity. His career in the workers' compensation fieldbegan as a independent adjuster handling workers' compensation claims. He went on to law school and from there a distinguished career as one of the foremost defense attorney's in the State of Florida. Among those he mentored are Charles E. Kelley, Steven Kronenberg and Ray Malca. In his memory an award was created by the Workers' Compensation Section of the Florida Bar entitled The W.L. "Bud" Adams Award which remains an award given to the best and brightest in the workers' compensation field. Bud Adams brought to his beloved profession great personal integrity together with complete knowledge of how the system evolved and was intended to operate."
One namesake of the current professionalism award, Al Fierson, was featured in the WCI Newsletter (May 2012). The following is excerpted from that:
After graduating from Duke University Law School in 1962, Al Frierson began the practice of law with the firm of Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt in Fort Myers. Al was the manager of the Workers' Compensation Department. He retired from the firm at the end of 2003 after more than 40 years of service. In January of 2004, he opened his own professional association to handle workers' compensation mediations. Al was one of the founding members of the Workers' Compensation Section of the Florida Bar in 1974. He served on the Executive Council for 15 years and chaired the Section twice in 1978-79 and 1988-89. Al helped implement the Board Certification program for the Section. He became board-certified in 1988 and continued until he retired from the active practice of law in 2004, During the years of his practice, Al was appointed by three different Florida Governors to serve on Legislative Task Forces or special legislative committees on the Workers' Compensation Law. During those years, he drafted many pieces of legislation that ultimately became law. Al is a co-author of the First Edition of Florida Workers' Compensation Practice Manual. He has given numerous speeches and seminars on this field of the law.
The other namesake is Stewart L. Colling. His former firm published an In Memoriam that describes him. The following is excerpted from that tribute:
"Mr. Colling dedicated himself to protecting, pursuing and expanding the rights of injured persons, especially injured workers. His dedication to workers’ compensation was an inspiration. Stewart L. Colling was born in Winter Park, Florida, December 30, 1959. He received his Bachelor of the Arts degree in 1982. He then attended Stetson College, receiving his Juris Doctorate in 1985. He was admitted to the bar in Florida and the U.S. District Court in 1986. He was admitted to the bar in Texas in 1993 and in Colorado in 1995. Stewart Colling demonstrated his leadership in a number of legal organizations: the Orange County Bar Association, the Florida Justice Association, and the Florida Workers’ Advocates, (and) he was appointed by Governor Bush to the Governor’s Commission on Workers’ Compensation Reform. He was a member of the Executive Council of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Florida Bar from 2006-2008. A former partner in the Morgan Colling and Gilbert law firm, he was a founding partner of Colling Gilbert Wright, PA."
I am grateful to all three for their service to this community. I am glad to have known two of them, and for the interactions I continue to enjoy with Al.
