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Tag: 2018 News

Floyd, Skeren Adds Senior Partners to Marquee

The law firm of Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, LLP, headquartered in Westlake Village California, noted for being at the forefront of workers’ compensation defense firms in California for three decades, is undergoing a name change.

With the retirement of senior partner Todd Kelly, the firm has announced that long-time senior partners Amanda Agavni Manukian and John M. Langevin will now share the masthead as the New Year begins.

Established in 1987 by workers’ compensation litigation attorney John B. Floyd, over the years the firm of Floyd, Skeren, Manukian and Langevin has expanded to offices in Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo as well as Pasadena and Riverside, Long Beach, Orange and San Diego, Fresno, Sacramento and Oakland. Their criminal defense division is located in Beverly Hills.

Now a multi-service law firm, Floyd, Skeren, Manukian & Langevin offer a broad range of legal expertise pertaining to workers’ compensation claims, criminal cases, employment and labor law, business law and family law.

Amanda Manukian works in of the firm’s Westlake and Pasadena office and is chairperson of the Special Investigation Unit. She obtained her juris doctorate from Glendale University College of Law. Manukian served as a senior certified law clerk in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office from 1998-2002, and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2002.

From 2002 to 2003 Manukian assisted the Deputy in charge of the Special Investigation Unit of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, in the Writs and Appeals Department.  She then served as fraud liaison for the State Compensation Insurance Fund in Los Angeles before joining Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, LLP, in 2004 as a workers’ compensation litigation attorney.

John M. Langevin anchors the firm’s Bay Area office in Oakland. He earned his juris doctorate from Western State University College of Law in Fullerton. In 1989 Langevin was admitted to both the State Bar of California and the U.S. District Court, Central District of California.

From 1988 to 1989 Langevin served as a certified law clerk in the Orange County Public Defender’s office in Santa Ana, and from 1989 to 1991 practiced personal injury litigation.

At the State Compensation Insurance Fund in Riverside he was staff counsel (1991 to 1998) and senior staff counsel (1998 to 2003). In 2003 Langevin joined Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, LLP, as a workers’ compensation litigation attorney.

Floyd, Skeren, Manukian & Langevin represent clients at all of the major workers’ compensation district offices in Southern, Central and Northern California.

Along with their special investigation and subrogation units, the firm has an appellate unit chaired by retired Judge David W. O’Brien, considered the foremost expert on workers’ compensation in California and author of numerous definitive publications in the field.

Judge O’ Brien’s daughter Bernadette M. O’Brien chairs the firm’s employment law department that provides legal advice designed to assist employers in comprehending the complexities of employment law and many other critical employer-employee issues.

Floyd, Skeren, Manukian and Langevin also offer WorkComp Academy, an online educational resource that provides industry professionals with opportunities to attend the firm’s varied educational presentations. It was created by associate Rene Thomas Folse who is licensed as both a psychologist and an attorney in California and is an experienced workers’ compensation practitioner.

Floyd, Skeren, Manukian and Langevin conduct client training seminars on California workers’ compensation law, led by Judge O’Brien and Rene Thomas Folse.

For more information, please contact the Firm’s Administrator Renee Sherman at (818) 206-9222 ext. 3261.

Partners Killed in Long Beach Applicant’s Firm

In the 1990’s, Los Angeles personal injury attorney Larry H Parker became locally famous for his pervasive TV ads with the tag line “I’m Larry H Parker, and I will fight for you!” If he could not settle cases prior to filing suit, he would refer the case to the Perona, Langer, Beck, Serbin, Mendoza and Harrison firm. Eventually the two firms moved in together at the same address, 300 E San Antonio Drive in Long Beach.

John A. Mendoza was a partner at the firm of Perona, Langer, Beck, Serbin, Mendoza and Harrison but was recently fired. The apparent disgruntled and estranged partner went to the offices Friday as staffers were wrapping up a holiday party.

When the Mendoza showed up he told lower-level employees to leave the building but kept his two victims inside – then opened fire.

Major A. Langer, 75, of Rolling Hills, and John A. Mendoza, 58, of Redondo Beach, were killed in the attack, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office confirmed Saturday.

Mendoza shot another senior partner, Ronald Beck, who ran the day-to-day operations at Perona, Langer, Beck, Serbin, Mendoza and Harrison. Mendoza then turned the gun on himself, according to sources. Beck was also managing partner of the Larry H. Parker law firm that worked with Perona and Langer.

Beck and Parker have appeared in well-known Southern California television commercials for Parker’s firm that conclude with Parker promising: “We’ll fight for you!”

Mendoza was a workers’ compensation attorney who had worked thousands of industrial injury cases over the past 20 years and had been a frequent guest on local television and radio stations.

The shooting occurred during a holiday party at the firm when others were present, creating a chaotic scene. Sources said Mendoza had either been fired that day, or had been fired earlier and had returned to the firm on Friday.

A friend of the victims, Jim Hall, said Friday of Langer: “This guy was the most caring, sincere man I probably ever met. He just had a heart of gold and really cared for everybody who works at the firm and considers them members of his family. He certainly didn’t deserve this.”

Beck’s son drove him to the hospital after the attack. His condition wasn’t immediately known on Saturday, but authorities on Friday said he was in stable condition.